Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are welcome. It is great to see three chief commissioners, who are all female. Congratulations on that. It is not very often that we see that in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

It is really hard to believe that in 2023, the approach to human rights is as it is. I do not even think that the approach to human rights was as bad in Margaret Thatcher's day as it is at the moment. Boris Johnson may be gone, but the European Research Group culture lives on. It is shocking. The picture painted by the witnesses is shocking, as is the continuing approach of the UK Government in relation to the Bills that the witnesses have outlined, including the Illegal Migration Bill. Looking at the UK Government in the context of its membership and those who come from migrant backgrounds, it is astonishing that we are dealing with this matter. It is disgraceful. Have these people no backbone? Do they not know their own cultures and where they came from? In this day and age, it is diabolical that we are back here dealing with this again.

I, too, would like to see and all-island bill of rights. We have to be careful about how might be done, however. Certainly, it would have to be done with Stormont back in action and everybody having their say in that. It is something to look forward to.

The committee has done a great deal of work on the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. The former Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, tabled a number of good amendments to the Bill. We were hoping that she would table a few more on the floor of the House of Lords in order to have it pushed down the road until such time as Stormont is back in place. That did not happen. It is what it is. I have one question for the witnesses. I am thinking further down the road in terms of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. Are the organisations having much consultation with them, from the point of the view of their approach to what is happening and what they would do? There is going to be no shifting on policy as long as the Tories are in power. I think we need to be looking at the parties that are next in line. We have had a fair bit of contact with Gráinne Teggart from Amnesty International. The organisations are all pretty much aligned in their thinking.

Moreover, I think it is important that we make representations, through the Chairman, to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, and maybe ask them to come in and address the committee about these issues, particularly from a human rights perspective, and see where our Government is going. It may by the autumn before we get them in. We must also the possibility of taking a case on the human rights element of the legacy Bill to Europe. On behalf of the committee, the Chair wrote to the Government last week asking it to ensure that a case be taken if the legacy Bill does pass. It is important that we hear from the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on that matter, sooner rather than later.