Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Before I start, I extend my sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the Democratic Unionist Party MLA, Christopher Stalford, who died suddenly at the weekend.

The Dáil is once again addressing one of the most poisonous legacies of the Troubles, the historic allegations of collusion in the commission of criminal acts and, as we have already heard, including murder, collusion between state security forces and paramilitaries. This comes with the publication of the report by the police ombudsman into investigative and intelligence failures and collusive behaviours by the RUC in regard to a series of murders and attempted murders by the UDA and the Ulster Freedom Fighters, UFF, in Belfast in the 1990s. This covers eight loyalist attacks including the Sean Graham bookmakers' massacre where five people were killed. It is deeply concerning that RUC files relating to that attack were deliberately destroyed. In effect, the actions of the RUC prevented the proper investigation of these murders, while protecting their informants over innocent people. It makes for uncomfortable and depressing reading. That is why one of the most important and continuing successes of the peace process has been the return to relatively normal policing. By normal policing I mean policing by consent. When policing is by consent, the policing service and the community can work together to prevent crime from being committed, to bring offenders to justice and to improve the overall quality of everybody's lives.

The Patten report and its recommendations were a groundbreaking re-evaluation of what is needed in policing in the community of Northern Ireland. I repeat my long-held view, which I have said for the best part of two decades, that we in this jurisdiction still have a great deal to do in implementing the key Patten message that community policing must be at the core of every police service and the core function of every police officer. However, the PSNI and An Garda Síochána remain haunted by their legacy issues. On both sides of the Border, the perceived need for an uncompromising response to terrorism led, in some instances, to the abandonment of proper controls and oversight of policing. As long as legacy issues continue to fester, they prevent fully normalised policing. The ombudsman report highlights the challenges we face. Community policing requires active partnerships between the police and the community. It requires accountability. It requires transparency and trust. Historic claims of law breaking by those given the task of enforcing the law are entirely destructive of this vital trust.

Our attention is rightly focused now on the British Government's proposal for a legislative amnesty. We all know that this is driven by the demands of Prime Minister Johnson's Tory backbenchers, not by the people of Northern Ireland and, uniquely, it has united all political parties on this island, North and South, against these proposals. I had the privilege of attending, on behalf of the Labour Party, a meeting in Belfast City Hall. It was the first time in my political career where every political party, including the Democratic Unionist Party, was united in common cause against the amnesty proposals. We know in many cases, if not most, evidence will have degraded, memories will have deteriorated and witnesses will have died. For example, there is no forensic record of any of the decommissioned weapons. We know the sheer volume of cases, which amount to some 1,700 killings alone, is really challenging. Uncovering the truth will only grow more difficult with the passage of time.

There must be some future successful prosecutions. We must allow that to be provided for, not shut off. However, we must also recognise that every inconclusive investigation and every decision not to prosecute represents a failure and a real hurt for those people directly involved. Northern Ireland's former Director of Public Prosecutions, Barra McGrory, has highlighted the difficulty in attempting through the justice system alone to deal with a quarter of a century of violent conflict which itself ended nearly a quarter of a century ago. He has written that the criminal justice system is neither designed for nor capable of delivering meaningful information to the bereaved or indeed to society as to how and why people died.

As I said, I joined the cross-party gathering of Deputies and Senators along with members of all parties in Northern Ireland last August to meet with a cross-community group of victims and campaigners to make our views clear to the UK Government. Many of those people visited Leinster House last week, when I had the privilege again to meet with them as did the Minister, Deputy Coveney. What is needed now and must be a priority after the Assembly elections is for the current UK Government approach to be abandoned and for an alternative to be spelled out to secure the fullest co-operation of both Governments, here and in the UK, to provide whatever mechanisms we can to give truth to people who simply want to know what happened. When state agencies are surrounded by rumour and suspicion, the truth must come out. There is no other way to maintain the integrity of public institutions. At issue here is an ongoing crisis of public confidence. Not just victims and their families but the public as a whole must be given the truth.

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