Mr. John Finucane:

I thank the Minister for attending the meeting. I echo the comments of my colleague, Paul Maskey. It is important to note what the Minister described as rare moments of progress in the legacy context. It is my strongly held personal view that it simply would not be possible without the strong support and involvement of the Irish Government throughout the process and in the journey undertaken by the families.

I have been contacted within the past week. My constituency of Belfast North probably has the unenviable title of being the most impacted, geographically, by the Troubles. Among the many families who have contacted me in the past week are the families who have recently achieved a new inquest. They are known as the New Lodge Six. Six people in the New Lodge area were murdered in 1973. Like so many families, those families have been on a generational campaign for truth and justice since that time. It is important that we recognise not just that it is important to them to tell their stories but also the importance, and to be fair to the Minister he touched on this, of the need to have official recognition and vindication of the campaign they have been on. We saw a stark example of that with the Ballymurphy families and the findings of the inquest.

It is also important that the families have the ability and the option to benefit from the criminal justice system or any judicial process which is naturally open to them as a result of information coming to light. The focus of my questions arises from the joint communique from the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference last week. There is a process of consultation, which begins today, and my party is engaging in that. However, there is a concern that this is going to be an example of yet another political agreement, this time in the legacy context and being like the Stormont House Agreement, that is not going to be implemented. There is a real concern, certainly among my constituents, that what we are seeing is a cynical attempt by the British Government to evade its legacy responsibilities.

I have three questions for the Minister. First, if he can answer, why does he feel the British Government pulled back from what it had signposted it was intending to do in July, namely, to introduce legislation? My second question follows up on comments the Minister made to RTÉ this day last week and, with respect, what he said again today. It is a contradictory position whereby the Irish Government will say there is a commitment to the Stormont House Agreement and to no amnesty, yet it is approaching this period of consultation with an open mind and with no red lines, saying that it is an evolution of the Stormont House Agreement and that it is a starting point but will not necessarily be an end point. That causes huge concern for constituents in north Belfast and for those I speak to in the wider victim sector. My last point, which I am keen that the Minister address if he has time, is that the issue of reconciliation is very important for this society. For me, legacy is arguably the single biggest barrier to reconciliation. If we see a political agreement not being implemented, how does the Minister see that impacting on being serious, as a society, in dealing with reconciliation?