The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has today published a summary of responses to its consultation on proposals put forward by the Consultative Group on the Past.
Of the 174 people who responded to the report most rejected it without comment. The consultation also received 72 responses from organisations, political parties, academics and medical experts.
The consultative group sparked controversy in the past when it suggested paying £12,000 to all families of victims of violence, including paramilitaries. Former Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward ruled that out.
Sinn Féin MLA Francie Molloy said it was hardly surprising that there had been a variety of responses to the consultative group findings.
“However there is a concern that today’s exercise by the NIO is about using the lack of consensus as an excuse to park this issue,” he added.
“The reality is that you will not get a consensus on dealing with the past amongst political parties, primarily because the future is still contested. To seek such a consensus and elevate it to the status of a precondition to dealing with the past is at best naive.”
The Consultative Group on the Past was co-chaired by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley. Among the 31 proposals included in its January 2009 report was the idea of a legacy commission headed by an international figure.
The group said such a commission would take over the work currently carried out by the Police Ombudsman, which investigates complaints against the police, and the Historical Enquiries Team, a specialist police unit set up to investigate unsolved killings throughout the Troubles.
Of the organisations that gave a clear view on the recommendation, 22 supported it while 15 were opposed. Out of the 174 individual responses, 165 were against the proposal.
In the summary of responses, it says those who were in favour of a legacy commission “generally welcomed the principles underpinning the idea and the broad objectives of working towards peace and stability in Northern Ireland”.
“On a more specific level there was support for the integrated approach which would combine functions that, in the view of academic Dr Patricia Lundy, were currently ‘piecemeal and fragmented’.”
Sinn Féin has called for an independent international truth commission, but Ulster Unionists described the commission as one-sided.
Alliance Party MLA Stephen Farry called for the political stalemate over dealing with Northern Ireland’s troubled history must be broken.
"I am increasingly frustrated at the political stalemate around how we deal with the past. There remain strong competing demands for truth and justice. These cannot simply be swept under the carpet," Mr Farry said.
"Dealing with all of these matters through the criminal justice system is not going to be feasible, not least due to lack of the sufficient evidence. A succession of public inquiries would be financially crippling. The Historical Enquiries Team does very useful work but it cannot address broader societal issues.”
PA