Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I share the Minister's concerns about the Northern Ireland Executive which I also hope to see up and running and doing its work soon. My concern about this case is that it is a backdoor to providing immunity for British soldiers. We know that throughout the history of the conflict only four British soldiers were convicted of shooting civilians while on duty and that all four were freed within five years of beginning their life sentences through the use of the royal prerogative. The families are concerned that this is an attempt to try to collapse the cases in an underhand and devious way. They are also concerned because these are the first cases of many in a queue. I ask the Minister to relay his concerns on this matter to his British counterpart and write to the new Speaker of the House of Commons about same following the general election.

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