Professor Kieran McEvoy:

On the Deputy's first question as to whether this is unprecedented, the simple answer is "Yes". The various items of paperwork that come along with the Bill, including the human rights memorandum, make reference to a number of things that happened during the peace process. The early release of politically-motivated prisoners is referenced, as is the process for the disappeared and the recovery of bodies, and the process of decommissioning of weapons. However, none of those processes are that relevant to what is being attempted here. First, in terms of the early release of prisoners, as committee members will be aware, people had already been tried and convicted and had served a sentence. It is true that prisoners were all released within two years of the Good Friday Agreement being signed, but in this context, we are talking about getting rid of investigations, prosecutions and no jail time being served.

In previous efforts we worked very hard to come up with pragmatic solutions. Consequently, working with the British army and a range of other stakeholders, we came up with what we thought was a workable solution whereby, for example, one could have continued to have investigations and prosecutions but would have reduced jail time to zero. I am sure there is a genuine concern, at some level, about elderly veterans going to jail in their 70s or 80s and what is the purpose of that and so forth but in doing that piece of work, we discovered that the Secretary for State for Northern Ireland already has the power within the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act to reduce the two-year maximum to zero. That can be done now so it is not about keeping elderly veterans out of jail. It is about not having public trials and not having proper investigations.

On the disappeared process, obviously evidence could not be used relating to information that was given over from the IRA, primarily, to that commission. If other evidence emerged from somewhere else and not that process then people were still liable to prosecution and, similarly, the decommissioning. One had narrow versions of immunity to achieve particular objectives, which is what happened with the disappeared process but it was not an amnesty and did not get rid of prosecutions so if evidence came from somewhere else, it could be used.

The really frustrating bit for us, having worked on this matter for all the years, I stress that our frustration is nothing compared with the victims who have waited for 50 years for this stuff, but as people who have put in a significant amount of time and energy, there was a workable solution through all of this. There was a bilateral approach with the Irish Government keeping the local parties on board, perhaps even getting to a stage where if one had reduced the jail time to zero to deal with the veterans issue, and there would only have been a small number of prosecutions anyway, but victims would still have had their day in court. When you can come up with lawful and politically pragmatic ways of getting it done then it is very frustrating that such a pathway is not taken because it was there for the asking and could have been done. Yes, it is unprecedented, it is a unilateral act on the part of the British Government, it was not workable and in our view, it is unlawful.