Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 79 and 115 together.

The Good Friday Agreement says we can best honour those who died or were injured, and their families, through a firm dedication to reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust, and to the protection and vindication of the human rights of all. This has framed the Government’s approach to the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. The needs of victims must be core and all relevant human rights obligations must be met. Dealing effectively with the past will allow the achievement of a more reconciled society.

In Stormont House in 2014, the two Governments and most of the Assembly parties agreed a way forward on legacy which would meet the needs of victims, uphold human rights and contribute to reconciliation, an approach endorsed again in the Fresh Start and New Decade, New Approach agreements. However, in May 2022, with the publication of its Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, the United Kingdom Government decided to move away from the Stormont House Agreement and take a unilateral approach to dealing with the past. Since the publication of that legacy Bill, the Committee of Ministers has on four occasions - in June, September and December 2022 and again this month - expressed its serious concerns about the Bill and its compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights. While the process itself is confidential, my officials have briefed Council of Europe member states regularly on our concerns and have made the Government's views clear in formal sessions.

The United Kingdom Government published amendments to its Bill in January and February. However, the Committee of Ministers in its decision last week expressed the "serious concern that those amendments do not sufficiently allay the concerns about the Bill". Other major international human rights actors have also made their views known. We have heard the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights express his concerns with the Bill, in particular its immunity scheme, and he has called on the United Kingdom to reconsider its approach.

It is important to recall that the legacy Bill does not have the support of any political party in Northern Ireland or of victims’ groups. Enactment in its current form risks severely damaging trust and setting back reconciliation efforts. I know from my own direct engagements with a range of families directly affected that as the United Kingdom’s legacy Bill progresses, the anxiety of victims and communities in Northern Ireland about the prospect that other avenues to truth and justice could be closed to them grows. Every family deserves and is legally entitled to an effective investigation and access to justice for their loved one. This is a point I have repeatedly made to my counterparts in the British Government and I will continue to do so. I have urged, and continue to urge, them to pause this legislation and return to a partnership approach on this vital issue that goes to the heart of the process of reconciliation.

The decision of Strasbourg’s Committee of Ministers also referred to the recent High Court decision on the Pat Finucane case, which declared that there has still not been an Article 2 compliant inquiry into Mr. Finucane’s death.

The committee “exhorted the authorities to provide their full and clear response to the Supreme Court judgement as soon as possible." It has been the consistent and firmly held position of the Government that a full and independent public inquiry, as provided for under the Weston Park Agreement in 2001, is the right way forward on this case, and the best way for the UK Government to uphold its Article 2 obligations. I reiterate the need for the UK Government to take this step.

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