Today, my thoughts are with the family of the late Columba McVeigh as they will spend yet another Christmas without locating the remains of their beloved Columba. I was saddened yesterday to learn the search that had been taking place on the top of Bragan Mountain in County Monaghan had been stood down, unfortunately without a positive result.

Columba McVeigh was 19 years of age when he was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA. Over 50 years have gone by now and the family still longs to find the remains of their beloved Columba. Columba's mother went to her grave carrying the pain of not being able to find her son's remains and her family have made a commitment to her that they will continue that search. This is the seventh time since 1999 that the McVeigh family have made that long, torturous journey to the top of Bragan Mountain in the hope that the remains of their beloved Columba will be found. Unfortunately, that seventh search has come to an end.

I commend the people and the commission involved in that search on their work. I have met them on the top of the mountain on a number of occasions. The work they did in forensically digging across 26 acres of bogland on the top of Bragan Mountain is hugely impressive. Unfortunately, that work has come with no positive results for the McVeigh family to date. I appeal this morning to anyone who has any piece of information, however insignificant they may feel it is, to please come forward and make contact with the commission, in the knowledge that any information given is privileged, cannot be passed on to any other agency and cannot be used in any court case. The McVeigh family, as well as the families of all the disappeared, deserve the dignity of being able to locate their loved ones and give them the Christian burial they all deserve. My heart goes out to them all as they face another Christmas Day, the 50th that the McVeigh family will spend without finding the remains of their beloved Columba.