The Irish Government must “move in lock-step” with its British counterpart on pledges to investigate Troubles killings properly, the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has said.
So far, however, the Government has made clear its legislation will come only after the passage of legacy legislation in Westminster, which is itself meeting strong opposition from former British security service veterans
Unhappy with the sequencing, the MPs said that Dublin should “move at pace to show their commitment and mutual good faith, and maximise confidence and the likelihood of successful outcomes”.
The issue of co-operation by the Irish authorities featured heavily during the committee’s hearings into the legacy legislation, in advance of a detailed line-by-line examination by the full House of Commons.
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The Independent Commission on Reconciliation and Information Retrieval (ICRIR) told MPs that Dublin has “still not met formally” with it on significant operational issues, even though it has been running since May 2024 and early engagement is essential.
Under September’s Anglo-Irish agreement, a cross-Border commission on information retrieval will be set up jointly and led by an Irish and British representative, modelling the body that has sought to find the IRA’s “disappeared” victims.
Saying that Dublin’s commitments need “to be fleshed out”, the North’s human rights committee complained of a past “lack of compliance”, including “a lack of commitment to beginning and completing” investigations into killings.
The North’s commission on victims and survivors said there is a “lack of clarity” surrounding the special Garda unit that is to be established to gather and share information with the Legacy Commission.
Some of the pledges made around timing of the Garda’s work to investigate Troubles-related incidents and activity occurring within and outside its jurisdiction are “uncertain”, the MPs were told.
Meanwhile, the South East Fermanagh Foundation victims group said Dublin is “being hypocritical” since it has insisted upon a bespoke “legacy” unit within the Garda, yet argued that a similar unit within the PSNI “would be totally unacceptable”.
Doubts about the co-operation that can be expected from Dublin on legacy were also echoed by the families of victims killed in the Omagh bombing in 1998, said the Northern Ireland affairs committee.
Dublin refused to set up its own inquiry into Omagh, the families said, before they went on to criticise the agreement put in place between Dublin and London on the co-operation that the Republic will extend to the Omagh inquiry.
That agreement, the families’ solicitors told the Westminster committee, failed to deal with “human, moral, and legal demands”, and, instead, was designed to “ease the pressure” on Dublin.
Former Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan told MPs that Dublin should have set up its own inquiry into Omagh because “there is clear evidence that that bomb was planned down there”.
In a series of recommendations, the Westminster committee urged greater transparency and increased consultation with key quarters, especially the families of those killed during the Troubles.
The complaints made against the Government have been consistently rejected over the years, which insists that it has acted properly.
In addition, the British government must address the failure to include Troubles-linked sexual crimes in the powers to be enjoyed by the legacy commission that is to replace the ICRIR.
It echoed the ICRIR’s demand that the legacy body must have police-like powers to properly do its work, and highlighted the complaints of those badly injured during the Troubles that they are being ignored.
The UK court of appeal has found that the existing commission, headed by former judge Declan Morgan, has “wide powers, unfettered access to all information, documents, and materials as it reasonably required”.
Equally, it can run human-rights compliant criminal investigations, but, nevertheless, has been unable “to command confidence across the communities of Northern Ireland and beyond” – even though it is investigating more than 100 cases.
“While we are sure it will continue to discharge its duties with integrity and rigour until the transition to the legacy commission, we are also clear that, unreformed, it would not have been able to win the trust of all communities,” they said.
The Westminster committee raised questions about whether the £250 million set aside by London for legacy investigations will be enough, warning that legacy must not prevent the PSNI from policing Northern Ireland.
