Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I am always open to engaging on a cross-party basis on this. I was with the First Minister for Northern Ireland in Hillsborough last night with representatives from western Balkan countries. We had a conversation about our peace process and the learnings from it for other parts of the world. It was a brief opportunity to talk to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in relation to legacy matters. We have a framework. It needs to be implemented and translated faithfully into legislation in the House of Commons. We will then need to do our corresponding piece of work here. I am happy to have a further or longer conversation about this with the Deputy and his party. What I will say now, however, is that we are already proposing to do two things in this jurisdiction. First is the establishment of a legacy unit within An Garda Síochána by the end of the year. Second, going back to Stormont House proposals, we have, from memory, committed to establishing that cross-Border information retrieval body to operate on a pilot basis for two years. I am interested in the Venn diagram as to where there may or may not be gaps, but I am very happy to have a conversation with the Deputy.

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