Dr. Duncan Morrow:

Fortunately, I am the final delegate to speak. I will not delay the joint committee as I only have a little to add to Dr. Bryson's comments.

My interest in the paper is that everything that happens around victims is turned into a recriminatory process and part of the problem we face is that the reconciliation group needs to ensure it will be brought back to the fundamental purpose set out in the Good Friday Agreement, namely, to enable a future-oriented process, rather than only a past-oriented process. The location of all of the work of the Historical Inquiries Unit and the Oral History Archive must, therefore, be set out in a charter which will establish much of what Dr. Bryson described in terms of the Implementation and Reconciliation Group, IRG. Further detail must be given on how the appointment will be made, how active academics will work and the independence of the appointments and reporting processes and full access must be provided to all of the material the IRG will require to make these judgments. Unless that happens, the risk is that even what we now have, no matter how it is brought forward because of the IRG and whether it will achieve all that it wishes, will turn into yet another recriminatory process and deepen the sense of frustration and alienation.

The critical element is focusing on the legislation being brought forward in parliament to ensure it will be put through properly. Any move to restrict or change what was in contained in the Stormont House Agreement or take it outside the framework of the Agreement which I fear is at risk as a result of the Brexit process, ongoing interference across these matters and the absence of any institution inside Northern Ireland, means that the Irish Government must place particular emphasis on ensuring the legislation will conform exactly with what was agreed to at Stormont House and will be in conformance with what I view as the core of the issue, namely, the statement in the Good Friday Agreement on the purpose of the role of victims. I have laid out this view in the paper.