Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The informed speculation in recent days that the British Government intends to legally grant an amnesty to its armed forces and to renege on the Stormont House Agreement is a retrospective licence to kill. Although this is shocking it will not come as a surprise to the thousands of relatives grieving for the loss of a relative killed by the British crown forces.

The peace process in the North has brought significant benefits to all of our society and Ireland is a better place because of it but the full benefits of peace have yet to touch the greater number of relatives who lost a loved one at the hands of the British crown forces where it matters most to them, which is in getting the truth and justice for their lost loved one. What matters most to the British Government is to protect the killers and its armed forces and to deny and block relatives from getting truth and justice.

A week does not go by in the courtrooms in Belfast where human rights lawyers are not battling for truth and justice for relatives. They are being opposed with the infinite resources of the British state, including the PSNI, whose reputation among nationalists on this issue is in tatters.

Britain's armed forces killed with impunity and now they could benefit from legal immunity and from amnesty. The pain involved in the search for truth and justice by relatives can be seen practically every day in the media in the North. A snapshot in Wednesday's Irish Newsreflects the scale of the loss and of the time that people have been waiting for truth and justice. The paper covered the stories of six families, one a schoolboy, Patrick Rooney, aged nine, the first child to be killed during the conflict. It also mentions three others - Hugh McCabe, Samuel McLarnon and Michael Lynch, all of whom were shot dead by the RUC on 14 and 15 August 1969. The Ombudsman's report into the killings this week said "that there was no effective investigation into these deaths by the RUC".

No member of the RUC was arrested or prosecuted for the killings. The newspaper covers the trial of two British soldiers accused of the murder of Joe McCann. He was shot in the back by British paratroopers in April 1972. The case collapsed this week. A former senior British officer, Colonel Richard Kemp, told Radio Ulster that "the families do need justice and I think the families got justice when Joe McCann was shot in 1972". That is typical of the mentality of not just British soldiers. The newspaper also covered the inquest into the killing of Derry woman Kathleen Thompson, aged 47, by the British army in 1971. The Thompson family are facing further delay as those accused claim ill-health and frailty of mind, which is a familiar tactic used as reasons for not attending the inquest and of it then grinding it slowly to a halt, thereby denying justice to the family. These heartbreaking human stories are but a small sample of the thousands of people denied truth and justice but at least the denial is in the media for all to see.

The British Government's plan not only exonerates the killers but it hides its actions from public scrutiny. At all levels from the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, through its military establishment and justice system, justice is being corrupted to protect and cover up state killings. The fact that this announcement is expected to be made on the same day that the findings of the coroner's inquest into the massacre at Ballymurphy are published shows just how callous this move is and just how little regard the British state has for its victims here in Ireland.

I welcome here the statement from the Minister, Deputy Coveney, on behalf of the Irish Government that it is as opposed to " a suggestion that the British Government would act unilaterally to legislate to prevent prosecutions, or the possibility of prosecutions happening, related to the Troubles”. He went on to say: “Victims and Northern Ireland must be the priority and the only priority."

I call to the Leader to allow statements on legacy and on the Stormont House Agreement to be held in the Seanad during one of our two sittings next week. It is crucial that victims and campaigners hear a parliamentary response to this from Dublin but it is equally important that the British Government hears one too. I hope that colleagues across the House will support me in that endeavour and that she can make arrangements urgently to facilitate that. Gabhaim míle buíochas.