Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2021
518. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the projected cost to the State of the implementation of the independent commission on information retrieval as committed to by the Government under the Stormont House Agreement. [16583/21]
View answerThe Government is committed to the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement, which was collectively agreed by the two Governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland after extensive talks.
The framework of the Stormont House Agreement provided for a set of institutions to deal comprehensively and fairly with the legacy of the Troubles, and this framework included an Independent Commission on Information Retrieval (ICIR) for truth recovery, to be available to victims and survivors across the UK and Ireland.
The Irish and UK Governments concluded an agreement on the establishment of the ICIR in October 2015.
Under the terms of the ICIR agreement, the Commission will have premises in Dublin and Belfast and, if required, in Great Britain. The cost of staffing, equipping and administering the ICIR will be borne by the two governments. Estimates of costs are not available at this stage, as the work of the ICIR will be demand led, producing reports on the circumstances of troubles-related killings on foot of a request of a family member of a victim.
The ICIR agreement was signed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 2015 and laid before the Oireachtas in January 2016. The Independent Commission can only be formally established once the necessary legislation has been enacted in both jurisdictions and the two Governments have notified each other of completion of all other domestic legal procedures required to bring the agreement into force.
I have engaged extensively with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on these issues, and we remain in ongoing contact to support a way forward on the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement legacy bodies, including the ICIR.
