Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 December 2015
21. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide an update on the recent discussion of the case of Mr. Pat Finucane at the Council of Europe; the basis of Ireland's statement on the issue; and if he will provide an update on his work to ensure there is a full public inquiry into the killing of Mr. Finucane. [45392/15]
View answerThe Government’s commitment to seeking a fair and just outcome to the case of the late Pat Finucane through our efforts in the Council of Europe is complemented by our commitment to continue to raise this case bilaterally with the British Government.
I have on many occasions raised the Pat Finucane case with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and will continue to do so. I have advised her that the Irish Government considers there was a political commitment made by both Governments at Weston Park in 2001 in relation to the holding of public inquiries in a number of controversial cases and that this commitment remains unfulfilled in the Pat Finucane case.
In our statement to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 8 December the Government restated our view that a satisfactory outcome to this case will ultimately be best served through a full public inquiry in accordance with the commitments made by the British and Irish Governments in the Weston Park Agreement of 2001.
I very much welcome the decision on 8 December by the Committee of Ministers committing it to resume consideration of reopening its supervision of individual measures in the Pat Finucane case once the current appeals around the Judgment and Declaration of the Belfast High Court in relation to this case are completed.
In its decision, the Committee also acknowledged that the de Silva review in 2011 uncovered new information that had not been previously investigated, and therefore had not taken this into account at the time the Committee decided to close individual measures in March 2009. The Committee also noted the submission by Geraldine Finucane, the applicant in this case, requesting the Committee to reopen individual measures.
At the Committee of Minister’s meeting on 8 December in Strasbourg, the Government set out in very clear terms our support for the reopening of individual measures in the case of Pat Finucane and therefore for the Finucane family’s request. The Government believes that since the Committee of Ministers decided to close its consideration of individual measures in March 2009, new and significant information has come to light through the 2011 de Silva review that supports our call for the reopening of individual measures on this case. Our support for reopening is reinforced by the Declaration of the Belfast High Court on 8 September 2015 which stated that as of March 2009, the date of the Committee of Ministers’ decision closing individual measures, there had been no effective investigation in compliance with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Therefore, having regard to the obligation of the Committee of Ministers under Article 46(2) to supervise the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the logical and appropriate action for the Committee to take would be to reopen the individual measures pending the outcome of the on-going police investigation which is currently reviewing the new and significant information discovered by the de Silva review.
Due to the ongoing domestic proceedings in the UK in relation to this case, the Government agreed that it would be prudent for the Committee to postpone its decision on reopening individual measures until the outcome of these legal proceedings are known. This decision took account of the practice within the Council of Europe that the Committee of Ministers should avoid making any findings in a case which is subject to proceedings in domestic courts. I look forward to the Committee of Ministers resuming its consideration on reopening individual measures once the outcome of the ongoing appeals are known and I would note in this regard that the Committee has decided, in any event, to return to the Pat Finucane case, as part of the McKerr Group of cases, by June 2016 at the latest.
