Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

In any engagement with our counterparts in the North or in the UK, we must focus on the fact that these are families and these are tragedies that we have not got answers for. That needs to be front and centre in everything we do. We have turned a corner in our own relations with the UK and I can see that clearly over the last number of years, through my time as Minister for Justice, in the councils I sit on and my engagement to date, in particular with the secretary of state, Mr. Hilary Benn MP.

I stress that the joint framework removes the legacy Act's prohibition on inquests. This will utterly change the landscape that we have been working with and that has prevented so many of these inquests from taking place. Inquests that were halted by the legacy Act will recommence. Inquests that had been ordered but had not begun, such as that into the death of Michael Leonard, will be subject to a further decision by the UK Solicitor General on whether they would be appropriately dealt with as an ordinary inquest, as I mentioned earlier, via the coronial system or via the inquisitorial mechanism, which will sit under the reformed legacy commission. The important thing now is that the legislation is enacted. We will obviously follow through and enact our own legislation here once that is the case. It is about getting those bodies and institutions set up so that we can provide answers to families.

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