Ms Gr?inne Teggart:

I want to answer those question in reverse. On several occasions I have met Department of Foreign Affairs officials leading on this area. In each of those meetings, I raised the need for an inter-state challenge. The reasons are multiple. This Bill from the UK Government represents its unilateral departure from previous agreements. The Stormont House Agreement was the first time we had a degree of cross-community consensus and a human rights compliant way forward in dealing with the past. With an inter-state case, the Irish Government can go straight to the European Court of Human Rights. I am mindful of the burden on victims and we have seen and heard from a number of them. Mr. Finucane is aware that right across the community, there is much discussion about legal challenge to this Bill should the UK Government push it through and it goes on to the Statute Book. We do not think it is right that the burden is only felt by victims. We will obviously be supporting the victims on those challenges. What we would like to see is the Irish Government commit to an inter-state challenge because that is the main tool at its disposal. The response we have got to this is that it is an option that will be considered, but a firm commitment has not been made. Given that we are approaching the latter stages of this Bill going through the UK Parliament, we think we are past the point now. The Irish Government should put a marker down. Preferably this should be done publicly and it should clearly state that if the UK Government puts this on the Statute Book, then that is the course of action it will take. That will obviously have to be done within a four month timeframe after which the Bill becomes law.