Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for facilitating our request for these important statements. The importance of the legacy of conflict in Ireland did not come to pass 50 years ago. It goes back much further and runs much deeper. Senator Ned O'Sullivan posed the question earlier of what started it in the North all those decades ago. There is not one simple answer to that. It is complex and multilayered. What we can point to, however, is a legacy of the conflict, as well as the neglect and abuse that went before that led to that inevitability. The legacy of conflict has shaped the political institutions here and the political parties which make them up. Whether it is Croke Park, Ballyseedy, Béal na Bláth, Ballymurphy or Birmingham, the legacy of conflict has shaped both of these islands and shapes all of us. I hope that, 22 years after the Good Friday Agreement, it has also encouraged us to move beyond the legacy of conflict and to assist families and all victims to move on to right and proper reconciliation, truth and peace. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade used the word "healing" in his contribution. It struck me because it was right and was also a word used by Patsy Kelly Junior during the briefing today in the AV room. Patsy was not born when his father was murdered. I understand this is a trying day for his family who are present in the Gallery.

The right to truth and justice, or legacy as it has become known, is one of the defining issues of the peace and political process at this point. It is defined by a lack of progress in terms of relatives who lost loved ones in the conflict getting the truth and justice to which they are entitled. It is defined by the extensive measures that the British Government, assisted by the unionist parties, in particular the DUP, has taken to block access to the truth and justice. It is defined by the British Government's deny-and-delay approach to playing its full role in assisting relatives in their search for the truth and justice. It is defined by the negative impact of the British Government's deny-and-delay approach on one of the most crucial parts of the peace process, namely, a new police service.

The PSNI is facing a crisis of confidence within the nationalist community because of the deny-and-delay tactic. The PSNI is regularly in the courts placing obstacles in the way of relatives accessing intelligence files and other information which would help them. This stance of the PSNI is undermining support for it from the nationalist people. It is also hindering it carrying out its duties unrelated to the conflict. The Chief Constable of the PSNI has said publicly that it is not equipped to deal with legacy. This reality is ignored, however, as the British Government uses the courts to prevent relatives from accessing the information they need. In recent weeks, it has been defined by the outrageous comments of the British Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, to which the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade alluded, when she praised the British Army and said its members who killed did not commit crimes but were in fact upholding the rule of law and doing their duty in a dignified and appropriate way.Ms Bradley’s offensive remarks were followed by the disgraceful and indefensible decision by the Public Prosecution Service, PPS, to prosecute only one para, soldier "F"’, in respect of two murders and four attempted murders on Bloody Sunday, when the British Army shot dead 14 people. All of this is against the backdrop of Britain's Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson, saying he would introduce legislation to "protect" former members of the British Crown forces from facing prosecution in Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. There is only one word for this and that is "amnesty". I am encouraged to hear the strong remarks from the Tánaiste regarding any such suggestion from the British Government. An amnesty for members of the Crown forces will totally undermine the Stormont House Agreement, which a British Government was involved in and agreed to. While the British Government is stating this and is blocking access to the truth, it agreed, after months of negotiations, which involved the Irish Government and all of the parties in the North, the mechanisms of the Stormont House Agreement. Those carefully worked out mechanisms, while not perfect, were designed to provide the truth and justice that relatives need. Instead of the British Government implementing the Stormont House Agreement, however, it is now telling us, six months after the end of the public consultation on the proposals, that it needs more time to respond to the feedback from that consultation. While this delay and prevarication continues, some relatives are frail and ageing. Many have died not knowing why their loved ones were killed or who was involved in the killing.

The British Government is cynically aware that as time passes more and more relatives are passing. Some suspect the British Government is hoping the issue will pass with them. The opposite, however, is the case and the Tánaiste knows that. The next generation is now joining in the campaigns to help find out the truth and get justice. The British Government is not just being criticised by relatives' organisations but also by those political parties which support them. Recently, the European Committee of Ministers, which supervises the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, delivered yet another criticism of the British Government’s failure to honour its international obligations on key legacy issues. It specifically criticised the British Government’s failure to set up the Stormont House Agreement mechanisms and implement their independence.

It also called on the British Government to respond by 21 June to the British Supreme Court's judgment in the Pat Finucane case. Very recently as well, a judge in Belfast prevented the PSNI from being involved in any further investigation into the death of Jean Smith in 1972. He did so on the basis that the PSNI lacks the independence required to conduct such an investigation. I am referring to a judge of the High Court in Belfast stating that. When we reduce all of this down to the reality of why truth and justice are important, we end up with families like that of the late councillor Patsy Kelly. He was a 33 year old father of five children when on 24 July 1974 he was abducted and murdered. Two weeks after he was abducted, Mr. Kelly's body was found in a lake some miles away. It was weighted down by two 56 lb weights tied with polystyrene rope.

The late councillor Kelly's family believe he was abducted and killed by an Ulster Defence Regiment, UDR, patrol. The Kelly family has been campaigning for the truth about Patsy’s death for decades. They have faced many obstacles put in place, initially by the RUC and subsequently by the PSNI, the British Army and the legal system. Today, the family met officials from the Tánaiste's Department and this afternoon they presented Patsy's case in the audiovisual room. It is long past time for the British Government to adopt a wholly different approach to resolving the legacy issue. It is time for it to implement the Stormont House Agreement and allow the families to access truth and justice. I know and appreciate that the Tánaiste and I are on the same page on this matter. Doing that would allow the families to benefit from the peace process as so many others have done over the last 20 years. They could then feel that same tangible benefit.

I will finish by thanking the Tánaiste for taking the time. He never runs away from these issues, to be fair to him. It would be easy to send someone else but he takes the time to not only meet the families but also to address this issue in the House. While we do not always agree on the nuances of all of this, there has been an upsurge in families seeking to engage the Tánaiste and the Government to assert and affirm their rights to be heard as Irish citizens. We have to move beyond simply bringing the families here. It is a great privilege to do so but I do so reluctantly. That is because I am conscious that it retraumatises the families every time they have to come in, tell their stories and relive those scenarios. That is why it is crucially important that these mechanisms are delivered on. We will talk about it and, hopefully, we will agree in these Houses. I have no doubt that we will. It has now reached the point, however, where the Government has to redouble its efforts because of the crucial juncture we are now at. I know we have a friend in the court in the form of the Tánaiste.