Mr. Daniel Holder:

The response from the Garda Commissioner that this might have something to do with trafficking, to be fair, was a bit of an off-the-cuff response because that is clearly not the case. These are clearly routine immigration controls being conducted on the land Border. The Garda could be asked to cease these in the interim but ultimately, as Ms Boyd says, a fairly simple amendment to the 2004 Immigration Act, at section 11 and other relevant sections, would knock this out. The legislation is inherently discriminatory as it stands.

Turning to the legacy issues, the issue of potential inter-state cases is probably the primary vehicle but I would not want to guess the timeframe on this, with everything that Strasbourg has to deal with. There would also be issues around the extent to which domestic remedies would have to be exhausted and indeed, whether the UK continues to incorporate the ECHR which, as we mentioned earlier, is under quite considerable threat. It would be a much swifter and more powerful process for the Government to intervene rather than for it to be left to individual victims and their own particular circumstances to litigate on the implications of a UK legacy Bill.

The other areas are the UN structures, especially the UN Human Rights Council. Two UN special rapporteurs have already delivered reports to the Human Rights Council stating what is in the command paper constitutes a flagrant breach of the UK's international obligations. Ireland is not on the council but I-----