Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 November 2014
107. Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the cost to the State to date in the searches for the bodies of the disappeared, that is, the persons murdered by the IRA in the course of the conflict in the North and secretly buried by it at unknown locations in the State; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42344/14]
View answerThe cost to my Department for the operations of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) from the beginning of its current 'active' phase in 2006 to the end of October this year is €5.1 million.
As the Deputy will be aware the ICLVR was established by the Irish and British Governments to facilitate the location of the remains of a number of people who were killed and buried secretly by paramilitary groups during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Of the 16 people on the ICLVR's list of the disappeared, ten have been recovered to date, the most recent being Brendan Megraw whose remains were found by the ICLVR last month in Co. Meath. Our thoughts are with the Megraw family whose decades-long wait is now over and who will, I hope, gain comfort from finally being able to afford their loved one a proper burial.
There are six other disappeared persons whose remains have yet to be located and whose families are still suffering. The ICLVR is continuing its work on all these outstanding cases. I want to assure those families of my and the Government's support for this ongoing humanitarian work. I call on anyone with any information on the disappeared to provide it in strict confidence to the ICLVR without any further delay. Any information provided can only be used for the purpose of finding the victims' remains and, no matter how seemingly insignificant, could hold the key to ending another family's suffering.
