Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister coming in today. I watched with interest last night the Second Reading of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill in the House of Lords. Lord Caine gave an overview of the British Government's amendments that will be brought forward on Committee Stage. As the Minister will be aware, the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, of which I am a member, last week visited Westminster and we had the opportunity to meet Lord Caine. The committee, which is chaired by our colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, met Lord Caine and the North Ireland Affairs Committee representatives from the Labour Party and the Conservatives to impress upon them our opposition to this Bill and the importance of legacy, which was definitely top of the agenda. I was interested to hear Baron Murphy of Torfaen, a former Secretary of State, last night say that, of all the speakers who spoke last night, he counted that 19 were against it, four were for it and four were in between.

The House of Lords does not have the capacity to reject a Bill.It is more about oversight and scrutiny. However, it can send out a very strong message about whether a Bill is workable or if it fulfils the rule of law, or about the impact it has on Northern Ireland. There were some very powerful contributions last night. It is no secret that I fear the impact this Bill will have on Northern Ireland. I think it is just as important as, if not more important than, the protocol Bill. I think common sense will prevail on the protocol but I worry that common decency will not prevail on this Bill. It continues to hurt people profoundly - victims and survivors. It re-traumatises them. They feel robbed of their opportunity for justice, having dedicated their lives to getting justice for their loved ones. There is such strength of feeling that this allows the baddies to win; it legislates for people to get away with murder. When we say the rule of law does not matter, we also say that the truth does not matter, and we then allow statements to come out like, “There was no alternative to what happened”, and we end up in this moral lawlessness.

The trauma has highlighted to us the impact this could have in terms of the taunting of victims and survivors. That still happens, and we saw it ourselves this weekend, when a survivor of the Troubles - a victim of the Troubles in regard to her father - was taunted with chants at an event. We can see the repercussions now of that moral lawlessness, so where would the introduction of this legislation bring us?

The amendments that were highlighted last night include strengthening the review process so it would be compliant with the European Convention of Human Rights, ECHR, and there would be criminal investigations, if appropriate. There was reference to independence. There would have to be consultation with individuals before the Secretary of State would appoint the chief commissioner, although I do not know what that means, and there would be consequences for a lack of co-operation. However, there is not a lot of faith in those amendments.

I want to hear a statement from the Minister today and to give him the opportunity to restate our opposition to the legislation. Nothing is off the table when it comes to how we proceed or react to this legislation going forward.