The campaign of denigration by paramilitaries against their "disappeared" victims was likened by Mr Brendan Ryan to the recent treatment of the murdered solicitor, Mr Pat Finucane. It seemed to be more than coincidental that the state agency campaign against the lawyer had surfaced at a time when the Irish Government was compiling a compelling international case on the matter. A public inquiry could quickly establish if there was any truth in allegations that he had had paramilitary connections. Expressing disbelief in the allegations, Mr Ryan said: "One can only assume that this is an attempt to head off a public inquiry."
Government and Opposition senators supported , with varying degrees of reservation, the Bill to provide limited immunity from prosecution for those who assist in the location of the remains of people murdered by paramilitaries in the North over the past three decades.
Mr Ryan said it was too easy to say that political violence was carried out only by psychopaths and brutes. The terrifying thing about such violence, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the State, was its capacity to diminish people's sensibilities.
"I believe as you watch the response of otherwise very humane people in Britain and the US to the civilians in Kosovo or in Serbia, that you begin to see not an equivalence but the same desensitisation. Once societies, groups or communities, accept the use of violence in the pursuit of an objective, then human sensitivity seems to disappear so rapidly and so fast."
Mr John Connor (FG) said a vast number of people had been left caring for loved ones who had been physically and psychologically scarred by the conflict. He believed the Government should help bear the cost of easing their pain and suffering.
Dr Mary Henry (Ind) said the Orange Order's decision to stage parades in localities where they were welcome was a desirable development. She hoped the order's members going to their church services during the coming marching season would remember the advice of the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Eames, that those parading to church should go with Christian charity in their hearts. Dr Henry, who is a member of the Church of Ireland, said she hoped there would be a serious debate at the next church synod on the need for the separation of the church from the order.
Ms Mairin Quill (PD) said it seemed to be a travesty of justice that the perpetrators of foul murders would be let go scot-free. But if the families of the disappeared were finally enabled to lay their loved ones to rest and to begin to come to terms with their awful loss, the Bill would be worthwhile.
Mr Denis O'Donovan (FF) thanked the Opposition for their magnanimous approach to the legislation.