Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I find myself once again bewildered that victims and survivors of the Troubles and people who have lost family members to murderers are yet again getting information about the future of their investigations, inquests and civil cases in the Queen's speech and through the press and that truth and justice for victims, which is fundamental to healing in our society and part of the reconciliation process, continues to be moved on unilaterally by the British Government. I repeat that measures on legacy issues need to be victim-centred and that all families of victims, regardless of the perpetrator, must have access to effective investigations and processes of justice.

The news came yesterday that a proposed blanket amnesty has become conditional on co-operation with the new independent commission for reconciliation and information recovery and that immunity is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Existing civil cases may continue but there could be a bar on new civil claims and inquests that are open may proceed but ones that have not progressed will move to a new body. Members of this House will know that we stood in opposition to the previous proposals to introduce a general statute of limitations and an immediate end to criminal investigations, civil cases and inquests that amounted not only to a suppression of prosecutions, but to a suppression of truth. What will this process achieve for truth, for justice and for victims? Unless it delivers on all three, it is not a credible position on legacy issues. The British Government cannot stand in the way of standard criminal justice investigations under the guise of truth recovery. Investigations are needed to get to the truth. Experience tells us this, including the experience of the Savile inquiry, investigations into the disappeared and cold cases that have come into focus again because new evidence has been found.

Sandra Peake of the WAVE Trauma Centre has said that this proposal gives a choice to perpetrators that is denied to victims. I stand with her. The Truth and Justice Movement says that the British Government is fooling no one and that it wants truth and justice not fairy stories from the state and murderers. I stand with that group. The rule of law must be at the core of legacy proposals and victims must be at the centre of this process. We need more information on this as it is currently lacking. This is not a blanket amnesty. Is it just a long-winded one instead?