Legacy Issues in Northern Ireland and Reports of Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland: Statements

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Simon Coveney)

I too welcome Ambassador Cronin to Dublin. She has made a big impact and has been here for only a few days. We look forward to working with her on so many files, from Northern Ireland to Russia-Ukraine to transatlantic relationships and so much more besides.

I am very glad to have this opportunity to discuss this important and very sensitive issue. As I said in our debate earlier this month, the legacy of conflict and the past on this island and how we confront and address this chapter of our often troubled and painful history is vital to the shared future we want to see. Even since that debate, we have seen another important and extensive report published by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. This is the second of two major reports that have examined specific events in the period of the Troubles and serious concerns that were held about the conduct of the RUC at the time. This work by the office of the Police Ombudsman has shone an absolutely necessary light into aspects of the conflict in Northern Ireland and deserves serious consideration in this House. It is a testament to the concern felt across this island that we gather here again to discuss these reports. I wish to make it clear that fully addressing the painful legacy of the past, for every family who has waited far too long and for society as a whole, remains our priority and consistent focus.

On 8 February the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland published her findings following Operation Achilles, which examined the conduct of the RUC in respect of loyalist paramilitary attacks in south Belfast throughout the 1990s that resulted in 11 murders and one attempted murder. That report was published one month after her report into Operation Greenwich, which investigated the RUC's handling of paramilitary attacks by the UDA-UFF between 1989 and 1993. Nineteen lives were taken in those attacks and there were many more attempted murders. The findings of both reports are shocking, while validating many of the concerns voiced by the families involved over very many years. Both reports identified significant investigative and intelligence failures and a range of what are called "collusive behaviours" on the part of the RUC. They identified continued unjustifiable use of informants by Special Branch - informants involved in serious criminality, including murder. They identified the destruction of records, failures on the part of police to exploit all evidential opportunities and failure to warn individuals of threats to their lives. It is important to note that the Police Ombudsman found no evidence to suggest that the police had intelligence that could have prevented any of these attacks or evidence that informants were protected from arrest and conviction. That does not diminish, however, the significance of the failings identified in these reports and the vindication of families' legitimate and justified concerns.

My thoughts, and no doubt those of all of us here today, are with the families, victims and survivors impacted by the attacks examined in these reports. Even after decades of campaigning to know the truth, the publication of such reports can be very difficult and, I am sure, an emotional experience for the families involved, and perhaps for some in this House who may know the families well.

These reports also serve to underline the importance of the work of the Police Ombudsman, set up as part of the transformative process of policing reform in Northern Ireland. That reform process was driven forward by the Patten commission and underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement commitment to a "new beginning to policing" in Northern Ireland. It is only through this kind of rigorous and unflinching examination of the past, and through addressing issues that are brought to light, that people can have trust in the systems of policing and law into the future.

The survivors of the events examined by these reports and the families of those whose loved ones were lost have had to campaign tirelessly to get to this point and for access to truth and information. Unfortunately, their long and difficult journeys are mirrored in the experiences of so many other families. As I stated here a number of weeks ago, and as I have said many times in this Chamber and beyond, every bereaved family must have access to an effective investigation and to a process of justice and truth, whether their loved one was killed by a paramilitary or a state actor and regardless of the circumstances.

When we come together in this House to debate and discuss the legacy of the conflict on this island and, sometimes, to express our frustration or shock at what happened and how it happened, we must above all remember the people and the families who are still impacted to this day by many of those horrific events. Whether we are discussing the victims of Bloody Sunday, Kingsmill, the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, the Birmingham or Omagh bombings, the Sean Graham bookmakers' attack or other incidents covered in these reports, we owe those families - every family - more than simply our outrage. We owe them our support and our determined efforts to make progress in establishing a genuine process of truth and justice for their loved ones.

Addressing the legacy of the past is complex and sensitive. It is a challenge that requires the two Governments and the parties in Northern Ireland to work together, to build sufficient consensus and to map out a path forward that everybody can support. This is why the Stormont House Agreement, agreed in 2014 after a long and difficult period of negotiation, was a pivotal moment in the peace process on this island.

That agreement addressed, among other issues, the legacy of the past. In doing so, it was guided by a number of fundamental principles. These were that the legacy of the past must be addressed in a way that promotes reconciliation, upholds the rule of law, facilitates the pursuit of justice and information recovery, is human-rights compliant, balanced, proportionate, transparent, fair and equitable, and acknowledges and addresses the suffering of victims and survivors.

The Stormont House Agreement created a series of bodies tasked with addressing the past. These include an historical investigations unit to take forward investigations into outstanding Troubles-related deaths, with prosecutions where possible, and to produce family reports. It proposed an independent commissioner for information retrieval, ICIR, to operate on an all-island basis and enable victims' families to seek and receive information from former paramilitary groups or the Governments about the circumstances of the death of their loved ones. In 2015, the two Governments concluded a treaty on the ICIR. It included an oral history archive to share experiences and narratives related to the troubles of the past. It also included an implementation and reconciliation group to oversee the process and report on themes drawn from the work of those bodies.

The Stormont House Agreement will not bring those who lost their lives back nor can it fully heal the wounds of those injured. No agreement could. However, it can at least offer the hope of justice, truth and, in time, reconciliation. That is why it is so regrettable that the comprehensive and balanced framework we agreed together has yet to be put in place.

Last year the British Government published a policy paper that represented a radical departure from the Stormont House Agreement. This command paper proposed a statute of limitations that would see an end to criminal investigations and prosecutions for Troubles-related offences pre-1998 as well as ending inquests and civil litigation. It is essentially a proposal for an unconditional amnesty for those not yet convicted. The British Government proposals have caused deep upset and concern to victims and survivors, who are understandably shocked by the idea that the avenue to justice open to all other victims of crime would be closed off to them forever by law.

At the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference held in June last year, I agreed with the Secretary of State to begin a period of intensive engagement so the political parties in Northern Ireland and the voices of victims could be centrally heard in finding a way forward. That process ran through the summer and early autumn, engaging with a wide range of victims' organisations, civil society, academics and those working to deliver the current legacy investigations. It was abundantly clear throughout that process that the British proposal for the statute of limitations does not have the support of victims. It does not have the support of parties in Northern Ireland, who have been strong and unanimous in their opposition. It has caused grave concern to international human rights bodies. It is without international precedent.

As I have stated here many times and communicated in clear terms to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, we cannot accept these proposals as a basis for a way forward. We cannot countenance a situation in which families do not have access to a process of basic justice or are left once again to fight through the courts for years to challenge a government-imposed process. We will continue to caution the British Government strongly against unilaterally legislating on these issues and to reinforce our consistent position that it is only through a collective approach that we can hope to deal with legacy issues comprehensively and fairly.

The current system is not working for victims. It is under-resourced and results in piecemeal progress and unconscionable delays and obstacles for families. We see important breakthroughs and significant moments, like the publication of the Police Ombudsman's reports this month or the powerful findings of the Ballymurphy inquest, that bring moments of clarity and truth. However, the important ongoing efforts are uneven and inadequate to the scale of the task. While making clear to the British Government that we cannot and will not support an amnesty, we have remained open and ready to engage seriously with it and others to find a way forward. Unilateral action cannot work. It never works, in truth, when it comes to Northern Ireland. We know from decades of experience what is possible when we try to work in partnership. Our commitment to peace in Northern Ireland has been guided by an intention to ensure the next generation inherits a better, more prosperous and more peaceful society. We must continue to do everything we can to deliver on that commitment and ensure new generations do not carry the burdens and scars of conflict into the future.

In my role as Minister for Foreign Affairs, I have met with many victims and survivors. I am always struck by the tremendous dignity and determination with which they take forward their campaigns for truth and justice. Last month, I met with a cross-community group, the truth and justice movement, and heard about their experiences, including that of Raymond McCord on the killing of his son by the UVF in 1997 and John Teggart on the killing of his father Daniel in Ballymurphy in 1972. Paula Rainey told me about the killing of her father, Sgt. Joseph Campbell, a father of eight children at the time of his murder. Eugene Reavey told me of the gun attack which took the lives of three of his brothers and four members of the O'Dowd family in 1976. I could list many more names, each with a story so powerful it makes it inconceivable that any government could seek to legislate unilaterally to draw a line under that story or their efforts to find what truth and justice may still be possible.

It is important to say I have met families who have challenged us in this State to do more to facilitate justice and truth recovery for cases where it is known or suspected that there was a significant cross-Border dimension to the crimes concerned. It is essential we recognise and respond to that challenge and that we as a Government and a State play our part fully in a collective approach that works for victims in all jurisdictions. It is vital we put in place a framework across both jurisdictions and that both Governments uphold our fundamental human rights commitments. I am committed to doing that.

The European Convention on Human Rights, which is central to the Good Friday Agreement and is incorporated into Northern Ireland law, must be respected fully in the legacy process. Where governments do not live up to those obligations, it is open to families to challenge them. The legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and a group of cases, including that of Pat Finucane, will once again be considered by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in early March. The Government will continue to give its support to the families involved. We will again call on the UK Government to fulfil its Article 2 obligations in each of those cases and, more broadly, through the introduction of an agreed and comprehensive legacy framework that puts the legitimate needs of victims at its centre.

I know Deputies will have much to add to this debate and many in this House care passionately about the need to fully address the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. Many wish to speak to the findings of the Police Ombudsman's report and express their serious concerns and solidarity for families involved. Few of us are untouched by the history of the conflict on this island and we share across all parties a commitment to building deeper societal reconciliation based on fundamental principles of justice, fairness and the rule of law. I look forward to hearing these important contributions and to responding at the end of the debate.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

I understand Deputies McDonald, Brady and Mac Lochlainn are sharing their time.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

The footprints of collusion that track across Britain's dirty war in Ireland chart a shameful trail of state murder. It was directed and co-ordinated at the highest levels of the British system, in alliance with loyalist death squads, and targeted the nationalist community, Sinn Féin representatives, human rights activists and, indeed, the fledgling peace process itself. The series of reports published by the Police Ombudsman illuminate in horrific detail what has been known for decades. Collusion was no illusion. It was the lived reality for the nationalist community and, for so many, collusion was the route to their murder at the hands of the British state.

The Police Ombudsman's report into 27 loyalist murders and attempted murders in south Belfast between 1990 and 1998 is truly shocking. It includes the mass shooting at the Sean Graham bookmakers on the Ormeau Road in February 1992, when five men and boys were shot dead by the UFF. The report shows that British state agents and members of the RUC colluded with the UFF in the murder of these innocent civilians. The depth and callousness of the collusion involved is revealed by the fact that these were agents who were up to their necks in the violent targeting of nationalists. They were on the books and clearly identifiable in multiple murders. In return for their cruel deeds, they were shielded by the British system that directed and orchestrated their actions. As Mark Sykes, a survivor of the Ormeau Road massacre puts it:

They were merely a protected species as information about their involvement in killings was not shared with investigating officers and information regarding their involvement was routinely destroyed.

Collusion was a structured, organised process that orbited the eventual act of murder. At the centre sat the British state every single time. I refer to the cover-ups, the destruction of evidence, the provision of weapons by the RUC to loyalist groups, the failure by the RUC special branch to alert targets that they were in danger, and the failure to test alibis, to conduct forensic analysis and to protect eyewitnesses. No stone was left unturned to ensure there would be no truth, no accountability and no justice. This report is the latest in a series that has put the travesty of British collusion under a bright spotlight. It follows the Police Ombudsman's damning investigation into Operation Greenwich, which detailed British state collusion in 19 murders and two attempted murders of Irish citizens by the British state. The threads of British injustice in Ireland run deep and wrap around the legacy of conflict. It shows that the British state purposefully targeted members of the nationalist community for murder. Collusion was the method used to keep the hands of the powerful clear and hidden.

On Saturday, I stood on the streets of Ballymurphy in west Belfast. Those are the same streets where in 1971 the parachute regiment, the outfit of Bloody Sunday infamy, shot dead ten innocent civilians. The families of the victims showed me the spots where their loved ones were killed. They too have faced decades of cover-up, black propaganda and concerted efforts on the part of the British state to deny and dodge responsibility for the murderous actions of its soldiers in Ballymurphy. For the Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday families, and for all the loved ones of those whose murders are detailed in the Police Ombudsman's reports, there have been years of hurt, pain and searing anger. There have been years of sleepless nights, chorused by that dull thudding sound that only such injustice can summon. Now, in the face of injustice after injustice, the British Government seeks an amnesty for those who carried out murder on its behalf. Shame on it.

Britain can have no hiding place from the deliberate, calculated policy of arming, directing and controlling death squads in Ireland. There is no support for its proposed amnesty here or internationally, and we stand with the families crying out for justice. This Oireachtas must stand as one and foursquare in support of that demand. The Taoiseach has repeated his opposition to the amnesty, as has the Minister this afternoon. However, it is now imperative that we see real effort by the Irish State and the Irish Government to put persistent pressure on the British Government to drop its shameful amnesty legislation and to return to the legacy mechanisms as agreed at Stormont House. It is through these agreed mechanisms that we can best address the legacy of conflict in Ireland and, together, meet the need for truth, justice and, yes, reconciliation too.

We can build a better future for everyone who calls Ireland home. I refer to a new Ireland, in which the potential of our people can be realised and where discrimination, prejudice and hate are replaced with hope, friendship and togetherness, and an Ireland where the dark days of the past are never repeated and never relived. How we deal with the legacy of the past, however, is fundamental to building that future. Boris Johnson and his Government cannot ignore their responsibilities. They cannot be allowed to ride roughshod over the opportunity of all our communities to see that future I have referred to made real. We have seen that happen far too many times. Therefore, it is now the responsibility of the Irish Government to ensure that the British Government understands this and understands that this will not happen again.

Deputy John Brady

Let me begin by removing any ambiguity that may surround the phrase "collusive behaviour", as applied by the Police Ombudsman in the North, Marie Anderson, regarding her report on the relationship between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries. Evidence of collusive behaviour is evidence of collusion. Collusion is evidenced throughout the pages of Ms Anderson's report, which details instance after instance where the security forces of the British Government engaged in a concerted campaign of murder against the very citizens it purported to govern. It was a campaign which has imprinted the names of Sean Graham's bookies, Greysteel and Castlerock, to name but a few, onto the atlas of tragedy.

It may be argued, however, that the term "collusion" is itself misleading. It suggests that the main protagonists were in some way merely aided and abetted by a third party. There is ample evidence, sitting alongside glaring patterns of historical continuity, which reveal a situation where loyalist murder gangs were provided with leadership and direction by uniformed agents of the British Government. This is the crux of the matter. The loyalist murder gangs were not just given assistance; they were led and directed by the security forces of the British Government in pursuit of the strategic objectives of the various arms of the British state. Members of the RUC and, in particular, the RUC special branch employed loyalist murder gangs as a tactical instrument against the nationalist community in an attempt to derail the peace process.

A whole chapter, or perhaps, more accurately, a whole book, is absent here on the record of British military intelligence and MI5 in Britain's dirty war in Ireland. Lest we forget, during a period when suspects were being routinely abused and tortured in Castlereagh interrogation centre, the British intelligence services had secretly bugged all the interrogation rooms there at that time. This was only discovered by RUC interrogators during a torture session. In the process of repeatedly throwing a suspect against a wall, they managed to dislodge some of the wall tiles and reveal sophisticated listening devices hidden underneath. A subsequent search by the RUC of other rooms found additional bugging devices.

The purpose of this British intelligence operation was multifold. It was intended to identify suspects who had broken under interrogation and agreed to work as informers for RUC special branch and then to allow the intelligence services to intercede through their own devices and to intimidate those informers into also working for them. This led to the situation where informers were actively working for the RUC special branch and, simultaneously, for British intelligence. It also led to the compromising of members of the RUC, who were guilty of torturing and abusing suspects during interrogations, into becoming more amenable to direction by British intelligence. In some instances, these members directly served the agenda of British intelligence for fear of prosecution for human rights abuses.

Let us be clear here that in the late 1980s and early 1990s there was a significant element within the RUC special branch which was prepared to settle for nothing less than the military defeat of the IRA.

The fledgling peace process, which the republican leadership was attempting to develop, represented a threat to the obsession of the RUC special branch with its war against the IRA. The solution the RUC special branch sought was to recruit agents from the ranks of the British armed forces and to place them within loyalist paramilitary organisations, where their military training and the assistance offered to them by their masters in both the special branch and British intelligence, brought a whole new level of operational efficiency and direction to the activities of loyalist murder gangs.

At this stage, having positioned their agents where they wanted, they then proceeded to arm them from a variety of sources, including a vast arsenal of weapons provided to loyalists by a former member of the British army working as a high-ranking agent for British intelligence, who imported the weapons from the apartheid state of South Africa. These were weapons that have been linked to close to 100 murders in the North. Many other weapons were sourced directly from serving members of the RUC and the Ulster Defence Regiment, UDR, such as weapons reported lost or stolen, including the personal weapons of members of the RUC who refused to co-operate with the ombudsman's investigation. They were weapons that were used in more than 100 additional murders by loyalists during this period. In some instances, there were situations where weapons were discovered during police searches only to be handed back to loyalists by the RUC to be used again in subsequent murders.

Having placed their agents within the murder gangs and having provided them with automatic weapons, the RUC special branch and British intelligence used their agents as a conduit to provide the murder gangs with RUC and British army intelligence and training to develop sophisticated intelligence databases on targeted members of the nationalist community. The list goes on and on as does the evidence.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

I am anxious to facilitate the Deputy's colleague, because it is Deputy Mac Lochlainn's time which the Deputy is eating into.

Deputy John Brady

There needs to be openness and transparency, and the British need to be held to account for their dirty war in Ireland.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

The last time I spoke on this, I invited the Minister and Department officials to have a serious look at the Operation Greenwich report and I referred to the shocking case of "Person K". Person K was clearly a mass murderer. He was a key suspect in 17 murders and seven attempted murders. The report of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland states that in 2016 the senior investigating officer for Operation Greenwich passed on a file about Person K to the PSNI. Six years on, we are not aware of where that investigation sits. This is a person who literally had a licence to kill, including the murder of Sinn Féin councillor, Eddie Fullerton, in Donegal.

Today, I want to talk about "Person J". Person J, who is also covered in this report, was a serving member of the UDR when he was a key suspect in the murder of Gerard Casey in 1989. In early 1991, the RUC found documentation on large numbers of republicans in the home of Person J. He was released on bail shortly after that. During the time he was on bail, he was a key suspect in two murders, that of Councillor Eddie Fullerton and Tommy Donaghy, who was a member of Sinn Féin. Person J was also closely associated with the persons suspected of murdering Sinn Féin councillor, Bernard O'Hagan. This includes two Sinn Féin councillors in the period of mid-1991, Eddie Fullerton in May 1991 and Bernard O'Hagan in September 1991, and Tommy Donaghy, a Sinn Féin member, in August 1991. He was on bail and a former UDR member at that stage. He resigned from the UDR in late 1990. This is all contained in the report. We understand he was eventually sentenced to a year in prison. The judge, apparently, was not presented with any evidence that Person J was connected to loyalist paramilitaries, even though he was a key suspect in the 1989 murder of Gerard Casey and was well known to be closely associated with leading loyalists at that time. Months after he was released from prison, he was a key suspect in two further murders.

That is just one shocking episode in addition to Person K. I urge the Minister to look at both cases and to pursue this matter vigorously.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

Before I start, I extend my sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the Democratic Unionist Party MLA, Christopher Stalford, who died suddenly at the weekend.

The Dáil is once again addressing one of the most poisonous legacies of the Troubles, the historic allegations of collusion in the commission of criminal acts and, as we have already heard, including murder, collusion between state security forces and paramilitaries. This comes with the publication of the report by the police ombudsman into investigative and intelligence failures and collusive behaviours by the RUC in regard to a series of murders and attempted murders by the UDA and the Ulster Freedom Fighters, UFF, in Belfast in the 1990s. This covers eight loyalist attacks including the Sean Graham bookmakers' massacre where five people were killed. It is deeply concerning that RUC files relating to that attack were deliberately destroyed. In effect, the actions of the RUC prevented the proper investigation of these murders, while protecting their informants over innocent people. It makes for uncomfortable and depressing reading. That is why one of the most important and continuing successes of the peace process has been the return to relatively normal policing. By normal policing I mean policing by consent. When policing is by consent, the policing service and the community can work together to prevent crime from being committed, to bring offenders to justice and to improve the overall quality of everybody's lives.

The Patten report and its recommendations were a groundbreaking re-evaluation of what is needed in policing in the community of Northern Ireland. I repeat my long-held view, which I have said for the best part of two decades, that we in this jurisdiction still have a great deal to do in implementing the key Patten message that community policing must be at the core of every police service and the core function of every police officer. However, the PSNI and An Garda Síochána remain haunted by their legacy issues. On both sides of the Border, the perceived need for an uncompromising response to terrorism led, in some instances, to the abandonment of proper controls and oversight of policing. As long as legacy issues continue to fester, they prevent fully normalised policing. The ombudsman report highlights the challenges we face. Community policing requires active partnerships between the police and the community. It requires accountability. It requires transparency and trust. Historic claims of law breaking by those given the task of enforcing the law are entirely destructive of this vital trust.

Our attention is rightly focused now on the British Government's proposal for a legislative amnesty. We all know that this is driven by the demands of Prime Minister Johnson's Tory backbenchers, not by the people of Northern Ireland and, uniquely, it has united all political parties on this island, North and South, against these proposals. I had the privilege of attending, on behalf of the Labour Party, a meeting in Belfast City Hall. It was the first time in my political career where every political party, including the Democratic Unionist Party, was united in common cause against the amnesty proposals. We know in many cases, if not most, evidence will have degraded, memories will have deteriorated and witnesses will have died. For example, there is no forensic record of any of the decommissioned weapons. We know the sheer volume of cases, which amount to some 1,700 killings alone, is really challenging. Uncovering the truth will only grow more difficult with the passage of time.

There must be some future successful prosecutions. We must allow that to be provided for, not shut off. However, we must also recognise that every inconclusive investigation and every decision not to prosecute represents a failure and a real hurt for those people directly involved. Northern Ireland's former Director of Public Prosecutions, Barra McGrory, has highlighted the difficulty in attempting through the justice system alone to deal with a quarter of a century of violent conflict which itself ended nearly a quarter of a century ago. He has written that the criminal justice system is neither designed for nor capable of delivering meaningful information to the bereaved or indeed to society as to how and why people died.

As I said, I joined the cross-party gathering of Deputies and Senators along with members of all parties in Northern Ireland last August to meet with a cross-community group of victims and campaigners to make our views clear to the UK Government. Many of those people visited Leinster House last week, when I had the privilege again to meet with them as did the Minister, Deputy Coveney. What is needed now and must be a priority after the Assembly elections is for the current UK Government approach to be abandoned and for an alternative to be spelled out to secure the fullest co-operation of both Governments, here and in the UK, to provide whatever mechanisms we can to give truth to people who simply want to know what happened. When state agencies are surrounded by rumour and suspicion, the truth must come out. There is no other way to maintain the integrity of public institutions. At issue here is an ongoing crisis of public confidence. Not just victims and their families but the public as a whole must be given the truth.

Deputy Neale Richmond

I am sharing time with Deputy Patrick Costello. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to another important and poignant discussion on the deep, dark legacy issues that beset all of us on this island regardless of political tradition, geography, age or demographic status. The more we discuss these issues, the more clear, evident and important it becomes that we ensure that full justice is always delivered to all victims of a really dark period in our shared history, a shared and painful past that deserves not just justice but truth. It also requires full buy-in from all entities, however. As has been said by numerous speakers, there is broad agreement across this island that there can be no amnesty and that we cannot simply forget or disappear the past or the very many things that are still outstanding.

The recent Police Ombudsman's report is absolutely damning. It is damning of the collusion, the failings of investigation and the outright actions that led to murder and attempted murder of civilians in Northern Ireland at a very difficult time in the Troubles, in the early 1990s. These events are relatively recent, within living memory for many of us. Many of the families are still alive and seeking justice and still no doubt go to bed every night pained by the memories of that time. Responsibility lies on all of us in this House, particularly the Government, which is why I welcome the opening remarks by the Minister and his continuing efforts with his colleagues to ensure that the terms of the Good Friday Agreement are fully met by all signatories, namely the Irish Government, the British Government and the parties in Northern Ireland. The British Government over the last number of years has been failing to meet the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Therefore, it lies within the responsibility of this Government as a co-guarantor to ensure those obligations are met. It is clear that justice and truth are still outstanding. Any efforts to introduce an amnesty will be a slap in the face to the families of those victims and so many other families across this island and indeed in Great Britain who suffered during this extremely dark period.

I think of the five people who were murdered at Sean Graham bookmakers, other murders and attempted murders and the eight attacks in all that still are outstanding and have not seen true justice delivered. The level of collusion between state and non-state actors and the ability for so many individuals to engage in truly dirty war activities are a stain on our recent conscience. They are a stain that must be tended to through genuine engagement and genuine attempts at reconciliation.

As important as it is to ensure that justice is delivered for the families of those slain at the Sean Graham bookmakers, we must also remember other victims. We remember the families of the disappeared. We repeat the call to those who know, and there are certainly people on this island who know where the bodies of Columba McVeigh and Jean McConville are, to ensure that those bodies can be returned to their families for a respectful and Christian burial. Because we do not believe in amnesties for everyone, we do not believe in amnesties for anyone. We believe in justice, truth and reconciliation for all. There is no point just talking about one set of victims. This Police Ombudsman's report is damning and refers to certain occasions that require deep analysis, investigation and full engagement by the British state, British state actors and those in Northern Ireland who were around at the time, to establish what level of truth and justice can be delivered. We have to ensure that the quest for truth and justice is based on equality.

I am not going to go on for much longer because I want to give way to my colleague, Deputy Costello. I hope we can continue to have these discussions in this Chamber. While others do not particularly want to talk about these topics and are prepared to pretend they did not happen or just to move on, we all know there are so many families on this island that simply cannot move on. The more we talk about it and call for justice, the more we will lend our support to the continuing efforts of the Minister, the Government and all parties in this House to ensure justice is delivered for all peoples who suffered during the Troubles.

Deputy Patrick Costello

These recent reports by the Police Ombudsman are very important. They tell us again how the search for truth and justice still eludes us and indicate the efforts required to establish the truth so there can be justice and, from justice, healing. Many of the Deputies today and the Minister have rightly spoken against the British Government's proposed amnesty. It is not about truth or justice and it will not bring healing, despite what the British Government may claim. For all of us to stand full-throated against it is very important and certainly that is what all of us have done. Many references have been made to Ray McCord and his work in challenging this. As Deputy Howlin said, the proposed amnesty really has brought together more people in opposition to it than the Good Friday Agreement brought together. It is quite an achievement by the British Government to bring us all together against it so quickly.

I am struck by one of the things Deputy Richmond said about buy-in from all entities. That is very important. An entity I feel needs to do more buying in is the Irish Government itself. I have spoken here before about the Independent Commission for Information Retrieval, ICIR, which the Minister mentioned in his introductory remarks. There is a treaty there providing for how it will work. There is a structure there. It needs legislation behind it. The important thing that we could be doing is publishing our legislation on how the ICIR will work in this jurisdiction. This would show the British Government that regardless of its attempts to bury the truth, we are moving on with attempts to uncover the truth and with what we agreed to do. That is something the British Government seems to be struggling to do. Publishing the legislation on the ICIR and beginning pre-legislative scrutiny would allow us to have these conversations, to continue raising this topic, to show leadership and to continue pushing the British Government backwards on this. Not only should we be supportive of the Good Friday Agreement, Stormont House and the new approach; we also need to be taking action. Pushing the ICIR from our side is one very important thing we can do.

The other thing I would highlight is an example of a historical investigations unit. This has been very successful in Northern Ireland. There are many questions from the unionist and loyalist communities about the Irish Government's roles.

Our setting up of an independent investigation unit to examine these kinds of matters could be very important. Again, it would show leadership and that we are not afraid of the truth. It would help to provide truth, justice and, ultimately, healing for the families and victims.

This morning I found myself thinking about the letter allegedly sent by the UVF to Mr. Charles Haughey. It was sitting in the National Archives for 30 years. It contained allegations of collusion and a statement by the UVF to the effect that the British Government was using its force for X, Y, and Z. What else is sitting in the archives that has not yet been released? An historical investigations unit that has the power to examine the archives and piece things together would be incredibly important. It could operate outside the ICIR. These are two things the Irish Government can do to start playing its part in helping to let the light in, blowing the dust off the archives and helping to uncover the truth.

We need to continue to stand unanimously in this Chamber against the British Government's proposals because, if pushed to their logical conclusion, they will render anything we do very difficult and, perhaps, moot. We need to stand together against the British Government's attempts to bury the truth. We need to do more to uncover the truth in Northern Ireland but we also need buy-in from all entities, including the Irish Government.

Deputy Pauline Tully

Two recent reports by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland into loyalist murders and attempted murders in the north west between 1989 and 1994 and south Belfast between 1990 and 1998 shed light on the activities of British state agents and their involvement in and connection to numerous murders and attempted murders. These are just the latest reports setting out the nature of the relationship between the British state and loyalist paramilitary gangs, a relationship that nationalist and republican communities were told for years did not exist. They were told it was just republican propaganda. These investigations identified, based on all the available evidence and information, that there was collusive behaviour and activity involving intelligence and surveillance; a failure to warn and conduct threat assessments in respect of threats to life; the failure to retain records and the deliberate destruction of files, especially those relating to informants that the police suspected of serious criminality, including murder; the failure to maintain records about the deactivation of weapons, which the Police Ombudsman described as indicative of a desire to avoid accountability; the failure of police to adequately address UDR officers passing information to loyalist paramilitaries; an absence of control and oversight in the recruitment and management of informants; and the passive turning of a blind eye to informants suspected of being involved in serious criminality, including murder, and the continued use of those informants when it was known that they were involved in those activities.

Many loyalist killings included in these two reports were carried out with weapons that British state agents helped import and distribute to the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance. Indeed, the previous Police Ombudsman, Dr. Maguire, established that individuals responsible for the importation and distribution of these weapons, which were later used in at least 80 murders, were never subject to police investigation. His investigation also established that a number of these individuals were, or subsequently became, police informants.

Britain can have no hiding place from the deliberate, calculated policy of arming, directing and controlling death squads in Ireland. Therefore, I welcome the Irish Government's stated opposition to the amnesty sought by the British Government for its state forces, intelligence services and the agents who killed for them. What are needed now, however, are genuine determination and effort by the Irish Government to put intensive and unrelenting pressure on the British Government to drop its shameful amnesty legislation and return to the legacy mechanisms, as agreed between the two Governments and the political parties as part of the Stormont House Agreement.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Ms Marie Anderson said she is deeply concerned about the scale of the findings identified in her lengthy and complex investigation. She refers to "The continued, unjustifiable use by Special Branch of informant(s) involved in serious criminality, including murder and the passive 'turning a blind eye' to such activities."

It was February 1992 when the Sean Graham bookmaker's shop was attacked and five people were killed. For roughly 25 years, the affected community had endured the British state's war against it. It began in the late 1960s when communities across the North said they wanted civil and human rights and equality in their own place. The only response of the British state to them was a violent one. That was sustained for all the time in question and more. That is what is really at the core of all this.

It is not just my view and that of most nationalists and republicans that there was collusion; it is our absolute conviction that there was collusion because it is the lived experience of all those affected. It is something they saw daily. They watched the RUC and British Army come into areas, swamp them for a number of hours, set up checkpoints, search houses and then disappear very quickly. Within minutes, the loyalist gangs would come in and carry out a murder or perhaps several murders. Then, suddenly the state forces would come back in again. This happened continuously on numerous occasions across the North throughout the years in question. It is our view and that of the vast majority that at the very heart of the British war in Ireland was the fact that the British controlled, directed and armed the loyalist paramilitaries so they could carry out their work. That is what they were doing. They were part of the state. The RUC, which was nothing more than a colonial militia, did exactly the same thing to assist them in respect of all that. The Police Ombudsman's reports will present evidence of this for many, and others will have suspicions. At the end of it all, we will need a process to deal with it all, but we have that process; we have the Good Friday Agreement, the St. Andrews Agreement and the Stormont House Agreement, which was the final attempt to come to an arrangement to deal with these legacy issues. In fairness to the Minister, he said in his speech that we have mechanisms set up to deal with this. Despite this, we find that the British Government, which is part of the same British establishment that organised and carried out the attacks and murders, is now saying it will not deal with legacy issues and instead have an amnesty for those who carried out the actions in question. It is shameful and outrageous that this is happening on this island at this stage, in 2022. It must end. I appeal to the Minister to use all his influence, not just on the British Government but also on the American Administration, whose ambassador was here at the beginning of this debate, and on states across Europe to put pressure on Mr. Boris Johnson and his government to go down the path that was agreed in Stormont House.

Deputy Gary Gannon

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak today. I am very conscious as I do so that this is the second time in three weeks that we have met in this Chamber to discuss the legacy issues in Northern Ireland. Three weeks ago, it was in the shadow of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and today it follows on from the Police Ombudsman's report into collusive behaviour, which we understand as collusion.

Often the work in this Chamber comes at us very fast and we must catch up as we go along. In the past day or two, when I sat down to engage with what I would like to say today and examine some of the comments on the Police Ombudsman's report, I was struck by the words of a senior, unnamed PSNI officer who said the report made uncomfortable reading and apologised to the families. I do not know who that officer was but the word "uncomfortable" really stood out.

Some of the findings of collusive behaviour identified in the report are:

Intelligence and surveillance failings which led to loyalist paramilitaries obtaining military grade weaponry in a 1987 arms importation;

A failure to warn two men of threats to their lives.

A failure to retain records and the deliberate destruction of files relating to the attack at Sean Graham Bookmakers;

The failure to maintain records about the deactivation of weapons – "indicating a desire to avoid accountability for these sensitive and contentious activities";

The failure of police to exploit all evidential opportunities;

Failures by Special Branch to disseminate intelligence to murder investigation teams;

An absence of control and oversight in the recruitment and management of informants;

The continued, unjustifiable use by Special Branch of informant(s) involved in serious criminality, including murder and the passive 'turning a blind eye' to such activities.

We can all accept that these are not only uncomfortable but also shocking and harrowing. They should be called out. The ramifications for the victims, survivors and their families go far beyond what we constitute as uncomfortable.

I was very conscious of the importance of the reports and the testimony of the families following the unveiling of the report two weeks ago. The families of the victims welcome the Police Ombudsman's findings. A statement by Relatives for Justice and KRW Law suggests families feel vindicated by Ms Anderson's conclusions. It states:

The report finds that eleven murdered citizens and their families were systemically failed by the British state in life and in death. It is a damning report that is undiluted evidence of the policy of collusion as it was practiced in South Belfast, and across the North.

Truth is incredibly important. I thought about truth as opposed to the word "amnesty", as proposed by the British Government last year. I believe it was our own President, Mr. Michael D. Higgins, who talked about the ethics of memory. Memory, legacy and truth all belong to the same family.

There are absolutely no ethics in what the British Government is trying to do under the title of amnesty legislation. This legislation is simply trying to draw a line and say that at this point, there will be no more truth or consequence and no justice for the families. Across this Chamber, we are unified in our condemnation and opposition to that. It is not something that we will play politics with. Our opposition to that amnesty legislation will unite us on this island. It is anathema to the idea of truth and justice.

In the Minister's opening contribution he named some survivors he has been in contact with. He mentioned Eugene Reavey. Eugene became a friend of mine in the years before the pandemic struck, as did Stephen Travers. Eugene and Stephen have a programme called the Truth and Reconciliation Platform. I had never met them before, but they reached out to me and said that they wanted to take the Truth and Reconciliation Platform to DEIS schools in Dublin that I had previously been working in running leadership programmes. They wanted to come in and talk to some of the students about their experiences. It is an incredible experience to hear two people as honourable and with the integrity of Eugene and Stephen, and to hear about the cause for which they stand. I want to touch on that a bit. Their idea of truth and what they stand for really left an impression on me. It is exactly what we are standing here for today in this Chamber.

I stood in DEIS schools around Dublin with Eugene and Stephen. Eugene has a strong Armagh accent and he talked to the kids about Armagh football. Stephen has a much softer accent. When Stephen walked in, I noted the remarkable difference in how he was received by the kids and the older school staff and secretaries, who remembered him from his days in the Miami Showband. I had to explain to the students that in his day, Stephen was probably the equivalent of Justin Bieber. Eugene and Stephen talked to the kids about really harrowing experiences. Stephen spoke of the loss of his friends in the Miami Showband massacre and Eugene spoke of the loss of his brothers. You could hear a pin drop in those rooms. I asked them a number of times why they were doing this work and reliving the trauma almost every day of their lives. They said they do it because the truth is important. They told me that they are fighting to honour their family members and the victims, to stand in solidarity with survivors and to ensure that we never repeat the mistakes of the past. That is what we need to remember. That is why these reports are essential. That is why we have to stand for truth. That is why we must stand in opposition to the British Government's attempts to cast a blanket over this and deny us truth and justice. It is in the memory of those who lost their lives - the 3,500 victims and the 40,000 people who were injured in the Troubles by whatever forces. The dignity, the incredible power and the testimony of survivors is something that we must honour and herald every single day, whether it is in this Chamber or elsewhere. We must do all that we can to ensure that it is never forgotten. We must ensure that those accountable are brought to justice.

Deputy Seán Haughey

As well all know, on 14 July 2021 the British Government published a command paper outlining plans for legislation providing for a statute of limitations ending criminal investigations and prosecutions in respect of Troubles-related incidents, as well as inquests and civil litigation. One obvious intention of these proposals is to prohibit future prosecutions of military veterans and ex-paramilitaries for Troubles-related incidents. This announcement has been rightly condemned, in the first instance by victims groups and their families, and also by the Irish Government, the political parties in Northern Ireland on both sides of the divide, by the Committee on the Administration of Justice in Northern Ireland, by several international human rights organisations, as the Minister has said, as well as by the UN Special Rapporteurs, Council of Europe commissioners for human rights and by Michael Posner, former US Assistant Secretary of State.

In recent months we have been reminded of some of the appalling violence and tragedies which have taken place in Northern Ireland since 1969. As we have heard, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Marie Anderson, published a 344-page report earlier this month in relation to a number of loyalist paramilitary murders in the 1990s, including the massacre at the Sean Graham bookmakers in February 1992. As I have said in this House before, the report makes for shocking reading. The ombudsman found that there was collusive behaviour between the RUC and the UDA-UFF in these cases. The report also showed that the police gave weapons to these paramilitary organisations. It outlined how records about loyalist informants were destroyed, and it highlighted how warnings were not passed on to those known to be under threat. In January, the Police Ombudsman issued another report into the RUC's handling of paramilitary attacks by the UDA-UFF between 1989 and 1993, which led to 19 murders and many attempted murders. Yet again, the ombudsman identified collusive behaviour and brought forward major concerns about the conduct of the police. The report examined the murder of Councillor Eddie Fullerton in County Donegal in May 1991, as well as the killing of four people in Castlerock in March 1993, and the gun attack which killed eight people in Greysteel in October 1993. I recall meeting Councillor Eddie Fullerton in the late 1980s during my Seanad campaign. I must say that he was very hospitable to me when I called to him. His murder was quite shocking to me, as it was, no doubt, to his family and all those who knew him. The January report makes for disturbing reading. The ombudsman is to be commended on her work.

On 1 February, we had a debate to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. On 30 January 1972, 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment soldiers opened fire on innocent civilians, killing 13 people. As we know, the families of those who were murdered have campaigned for justice ever since and wanted the soldiers involved to be prosecuted. This has not happened and the prosecution of soldier F has run into problems.

The Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974 resulted in the greatest loss of life in a single day during the Troubles. It seems beyond doubt that in their efforts to defeat the Provisional IRA and to influence the political process, there was collusion between loyalist paramilitaries, the RUC and British military intelligence, or certainly between elements of those organisations in the case of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. This is totally unacceptable in a so-called democracy. The surviving victims and the families of those who were killed on that day are entitled to get justice. The Irish Government must continue to raise this issue with the British Government to get it to release the relevant files and documents in this regard, and to seek the truth about these events.

The debate today should be all about their victims and their families. I can only but imagine the daily upset and distress that these families experience as long as these issues remain unresolved. Legacy issues and dealing with legacy matters continue to be major concerns for all those caught up in the violence that has plagued Northern Ireland since 1969. Therefore, the provisions of the Stormont House framework on legacy that were agreed in 2014 must be fully implemented. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Government must continue to press the British Government on this issue. There are some signs that the British Government is reconsidering its stance on this matter, certainly in the short term anyway, as we head towards the Assembly elections. I hope it will go all the way and abandon this ill-considered proposal.

Deputy Fergus O'Dowd

This is a very important debate. I listened carefully to all of the speakers so far. I fully support the view as expressed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs on what must happen now and what the future should be for all of us. Earlier this month, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland published a very significant report assessing the RUC's handling of a series of loyalist paramilitary murders between 1990 and 1998. This report clearly identified a range of collusive behaviours by the police and the continued unjustifiable use by special branch of informants involved in serious criminality, including murder. It was known to special branch at the time that the people it was supporting were carrying out foul and unacceptable murders. Our thoughts are with the families of the 11 people murdered in the eight loyalist attacks considered in this report, including the victims and survivors of the Sean Graham bookmakers attack, which saw its 30th anniversary recently.

This is a substantial report and, of course, has to be studied. The findings must be acted on. I know the Government and all Members of the House are deeply conscious that this comes only weeks after the report of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland on Operation Greenwich which also identified collusive behaviours and raised significant concerns regarding appalling police conduct.

All the families impacted by these reports and all the other families who lost loved ones during the Troubles deserve access to information and a process of justice for their loved ones, regardless of who the perpetrators were. It is vital that we put in place a comprehensive and agreed framework to deal with this very painful legacy of our past. Victims and families have been waiting far too long.

The Minister referred to British Government proposals to legislate for a general statute of limitations. There absolutely cannot be unilateral action on any of these issues. It is only by the agreement of all the parties concerned that we all go forward together. I compare the current leadership in Britain with people such as Tony Blair and John Major, who, notwithstanding the political difficulties they had, made significant progress in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement. We cannot allow actions such as the British proposal to legislate for a general statute of limitations to proceed. It is absolutely unacceptable. All Members on all sides of this House will play our part in making sure that what was planned in the Stormont House Agreement actually happens.

I refer to the families who have lost loved ones. In my most recent speech on this issue in the House, I referred to the disappeared - those people who were murdered and buried and whose bodies have not been found. I think there were 16 in all. I know that 12 of those bodies have been recovered. Many of the people who murdered the four remaining victims are in their 60s, 70s or 80s. It is incumbent on us all to ensure that, whatever people may be still living, that everybody concerned, on all sides, encourages, supports and makes every possible effort at this very late stage to bring closure to all of those families. Having spoken to the family of Columba McVeigh, in particular, I am aware of the deep hurt they still suffer. Of all the people who died in the Troubles and as a result of violence, these are the only four whose graves are not known. I believe the families are absolutely entitled to the full support of everybody. I have acknowledged that Sinn Féin in the past and, indeed, the IRA did find 12 of the 16 bodies but I repeat that we need to get those other four.

It is a very difficult time right now because Northern Ireland is in the process of preparing for an election. Listening to Sammy Wilson speaking about the group in Markethill, County Armagh, certainly made clear the difficulties people face on all sides. Extreme views gain momentum coming up to elections. We need to do anything we can do to support the middle ground, whether one is nationalist, unionist, or whatever one's beliefs are, if any. As regards the Stormont House Agreement, the historical investigations unit, the independent commission on information retrieval and the oral history archive are key and core parts of that Agreement. I believe that is the only way forward. I support the Minister and the Government in their efforts to ensure that all of those components of the agreement are carried out, that we move on to a new phase in our country of continued peace and work, and have a new administration in the North that works together on the middle ground.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

The report of the ombudsman into the south Belfast killings is grim. It details 27 loyalist murders and attempted murders in south Belfast. There were eight RUC special branch agents involved in 27 murders. One agent was recruited because of his involvement in the planning, preparation and execution of previous murders. There was collusion in each and every killing. State agents involved in murder were allowed to kill and kill again. RUC agents handed guns back out to loyalist paramilitaries so they could kill again.

The report is grim. It is shocking, disgraceful and appalling. What it is not is that it is on its own. There was the report on Operation Greenwich in respect of the killing of 19 people, including Councillors Eddie Fullerton and Bernard O'Hagan. The investigation into the death of Pat Finucane is ongoing. There were previously reports on loyalist killings in south Down and the north west, including Loughinisland, Greysteel and other incidents. It can no longer be dismissed by anyone as a few rotten apples. This was systemic. It was a part of Britain's tools of war in the North; its tools of war in Ireland. Of that there can now be no question.

It is welcome that we are having these statements today because I regret this issue has not got the attention it ought to have received outside this Chamber, or generally speaking. The coverage it got in the British media was practically nil. It was covered in the Irish media but, to be honest, I am not sure that coverage was to the depth and extent it should have been, given how shocking the findings were. Our nearest neighbour, the state that governs the Six Counties in the North of our country, used loyalist paramilitaries as death squads to assassinate people on a very widespread basis.

It seems clear now that the trail of this goes all the way to No.10. It is important that it is now part of Government policy and communication that it is clear with the British Government that it does not accept that the full truth has been told in respect of collusion because it has been clearly shown, including in this report, to be systemic and part of policy.

Deputy Patricia Ryan

It is all very well to talk about this but at some point there will have to be action. The Irish and British Governments need to take decisive action now. There has been too much kicking the can down the road. They cannot keep making new agreements and not delivering on them. Both Governments are like the boys who cried wolf. It has reached the stage where nobody trusts them. The Government must look at the existing agreements and start delivering on them. These agreements are the foundation stones for the peace that exists on this island, a very successful peace that has transformed this island in the past two decades.

The past cannot be changed or undone. The suffering and pain experienced in our society cannot be brushed aside or hidden away. All sides, including the State, must make a positive contribution to acknowledging the past and working towards reconciliation and healing. There are victims and survivors on all sides. Many of them still live with the psychological and physical scars of the conflict. Sinn Féin acknowledges the grief associated with all the lives that were lost. On all sides of the conflict, all victims deserve acknowledgement of their pain and loss as the first step towards a healing process. The best way to achieve that is through the establishment of an independent international truth commission.

The British Government wants to push through an amnesty for those who carried out acts of British state murder in Ireland, including those who were responsible for the atrocities of Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy; those who murdered Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson and Councillor Eddie Fullerton; those who carried out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings; and the British soldiers who, in 1974, shot John Pat Cunningham in the back - a vulnerable adult with the mental age of a seven-year-old who ran from them in fear. I have met families of victims. They have spoken of being retraumatised by the British Government's attempt to hide its shameful acts. It is time for the Government to start to show it is serious about peace, truth and the real reconciliation.

Deputy Paul Murphy

What we have here in black and white in the Police Ombudsman's report is the very significant evidence and confirmation of repeated collusion by the British state with loyalist paramilitaries in murdering people. The point has been made that this is far more than a few bad apples. It is or was clearly government policy. It was systematic, deadly, has been covered up and continues to be covered up, and those responsible continue to have impunity.

It is worth going through some of the cases, and many have been mentioned, to bring out the horror of this behaviour by a supposedly democratic state. In particular, the report into 11 murders by loyalist gangs found there was police involvement and police inclusion. It should also be mentioned, because people may think this is something that happened in the dim and distant past, which even so would obviously not make it okay, that we are talking about atrocities that go into the 1990s. On the Sean Graham bookmakers killings, the Police Ombudsman found the police colluded in the massacre at the bookies in 1992 where five people were killed, including one 15-year-old. The Police Ombudsman found the police deliberately destroyed files on this attack protecting those responsible. In other cases, the RUC quite literally handed guns to loyalist terrorists, guns with which they went on to commit murder. That is the definition of collusion. This is a criminal conspiracy of state forces working hand in hand with terrorist gangs. State-sponsored serial killers is what the former Police Ombudsman called some of the police agents in loyalist and republican groups. Individuals were allowed to kill with impunity so long as they remained of use to the British state.

One example from 1971 is the loyalist bombing of McGurk’s bar, which killed 15 civilians and injured 17 more. Years later, a member of the covert military reaction force admitted it had supplied the explosives and encouraged the attack, believing the bar to be a republican hotspot.

In another case the Police Ombudsman highlighted the 1993 killing of Damien Walsh, a 17-year-old young man shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries. The report found significant investigative failure by the police amounting to collusive behaviours. It said Walsh's killers were provided with information by a police officer and British intelligence which informed their attack. Damien’s mother, Marian, had campaigned for nearly three decades, questioning the role of the police in her son’s shooting. The ombudsman’s report found that police had also failed to capitalise on investigative opportunities, including failing to arrest suspects, and had made a deliberate decision to disregard intelligence about the threat. In another case last year, a judge found that “until late 1973, an understanding was in place between the RUC and the Army whereby the RUC did not arrest and question, or even take witness statements from, soldiers involved in shootings such as this one”. The judge added, “This appalling practice was designed, at least in part, to protect soldiers from being prosecuted and in very large measure it succeeded.”

Now the Prime Minister of Britain, Boris Johnson, wants to stop any more investigations such as this to stop more horrors being uncovered. They are proposing to close down all investigations into the collusion between the British military and police forces and loyalist terrorist groups and are planning to end all inquests into killings that have been ordered by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland as well as all investigations by the Police Ombudsman, even those where grave and exceptional new evidence of police misconduct has emerged. On top of that they are seeking to end all civil actions being pursued through the courts by families seeking disclosure from the Ministry of Defence and others on evidence of collusion between state forces and paramilitaries, as well as investigations being conducted by the legacy investigation branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which considers historical cases of killings. This includes cases such as soldier F who has been charged with murders on Bloody Sunday in 1972 and the death of a man with mental disabilities killed by soldiers. The UK Government proposals will leave families who may already have attended up to 30 preliminary hearings to be told the inquest itself cannot now go ahead. This is a cover-up, plain and simple.

I will finish with a reference to another cover-up, which are the attempts to protect General Mike Jackson from prosecution for his role in the Bloody Sunday massacre. He was second in command of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment and would later climb up the ladder of the British Army to become the chief of staff at the time of the invasion of Iraq. I was at a demonstration in Derry to mark the 50th anniversary of the murder of 14 people. Immediately after the Bloody Sunday massacre, Jackson interviewed his soldiers and drew up a shot list of where the shootings had occurred. It was a piece of fiction but it became the basis of the Report of the Tribunal appointed to inquire into the events on Sunday, 30th January 1972, the Widgery Report, which whitewashed the Parachute Regiment. The mood of the protest I was at a couple of weeks ago was focused on the call for the prosecution of this man, General Sir Mike Jackson. Not only did he help to organise the massacre but he was also the key figure in covering it up. That is why he must be brought before the courts to answer for his crimes.

There is an important political point here where the British establishment likes to portray the conflict in the North as a war between two tribes where their army becomes, supposedly, piggy in the middle. Bloody Sunday arose because of a cold-blooded decision of the British establishment to suppress a mass movement for civil rights. Correctly, everybody is agreed there must be no immunity given to the soldiers involved, but the real criminals are those who gave the orders to shoot. Let us start by putting them in the dock.

Deputy Brendan Smith

I am glad we are having this debate again, having had one just a number of weeks ago following the commemoration of the awful atrocity in Derry on Bloody Sunday. I am glad Deputy Gannon referred earlier to the work of people like Stephen Travers and Eugene Reavey. In fact some Deputies and I had an opportunity earlier today to have a very long and detailed conversation with Stephen Travers. I know both Stephen and Eugene over many years and I know they have drawn much of their inspiration in the great work they do in the whole area of speaking to groups and meeting with other families who were also victims from the work of Seamus Mallon and the leadership that he showed over the years.

I know the late Seamus Mallon, an outstanding Irish nationalist, encouraged them to carry out their work. I know my former Dáil colleague and good friend Rory O’Hanlon has been similarly supportive of the work of Eugene and Stephen. It is very important we recognise the work of different individuals and groups. Many of the groups throughout Northern Ireland, in particular, like the WAVE trauma group, are powerful advocates for victims and for advocating on behalf of people in regard to their particular needs. Eugene and Stephen set up the Truth and Reconciliation Platform and have spoken to hundreds of people who have suffered similarly to themselves in many different forums. They have found it very important that people have the opportunities to outline what they have been through and what they would like to see achieved.

Unfortunately, most of them realise that in many instances people will not be brought to justice for the terrible tragedies inflicted on innocent people, but if the truth at least was arrived at, it would be so important. One of the things they talk about is the need for our young people to know what went on in our country. It is so disappointing when one hears of so many people today who do not study the subject of history at second level school. Both history and geography are basic parameters for all of us in regard to what we need to know about our own region, country and our own backgrounds.

The proposals published by the British Government last July for a statute of limitations - basically an amnesty - ending criminal investigations and prosecutions relating to Troubles-related incidents as well as inquests and civil litigation have caused, very understandably, very significant distress, alarm and disquiet all across this island, and in Britain as well. It is an absolutely appalling proposal.

The proposals represent a marked and fundamental departure from what the British Government agreed with the Irish Government and the political parties in Northern Ireland in the Stormont House Agreement. That agreement was hard fought for and hard won. It should be honoured and implemented. It puts the parameters and structures in place to deal with legacy issues.

More recently, the published reports by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland reveal absolutely shocking behaviour. Those of us who read Anne Cadwallader's book on the activities of the Glenanne gang and others perhaps were not shocked by some of the findings, but they brought home with a clear focus the terrible atrocities that were facilitated by state forces. The Police Ombudsman described collusive behaviour, collusion and, essentially, the use of agents and weapons, including the handing back of weapons to loyalist paramilitaries. That was done by agents of a state. It is deplorable behaviour. There was mention earlier by colleagues here of the terrible atrocity in Sean Graham bookmakers and the terrible loss of life on that awful, tragic day. The ombudsman's report has found very strong evidence of investigative intelligence failures and collusive behaviours by the then RUC, including the continued unjustifiable use of informants involved in serious criminality and murder. Crucially, and again unacceptably, there was the return of weapons to loyalist paramilitaries. I commend the ombudsman on producing this report. It lays out in stark detail what people went through and what the type of behaviour was.

We have often discussed in the committee, in bilateral meetings and on Question Time in the Dáil the failure of the British Government to respond to the three unanimous requests of this Parliament for access to papers and files pertaining to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. It is deplorable that the British Government has not responded. I spoke on a number of occasions over the past 12 months in this House about the bombing in Belturbet in 1972, when two young innocent people, Geraldine O'Reilly and Patrick Stanley, were murdered. I put information on the record of this House about 12 months ago whereby there is conclusive evidence that the bomb was brought across the Border from County Fermanagh, with a clear link with loyalist paramilitaries as well. I again take the opportunity to commend the work of Professor Edward Burke of the University of Nottingham. That gave us the material that I was glad to put on the record of the House, from the point of view of it being given to our agencies, the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána, to pursue. We want to see the truth in respect of those desperate atrocities.

Deputy Cathal Crowe

I have a great interest in history and I have always admired the work of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which has spent many decades tracking down Nazi war criminals. It has done so with the support of many police forces throughout the world. Indeed, the Home Office in Britain and the UK police forces have been very good to engage in that over the years and they have led the way in Europe in seeking justice for victims of the Holocaust. Victims of any war or of paramilitarism have every right until their dying day to seek justice for family members. This is what is at the heart of everything we are discussing this afternoon. The same applies in any jurisdiction. People have the right to full justice for a family member or loved one who has died.

To see Boris Johnson seek to introduce, on 14 July last, a statute of limitation ending criminal investigations and prosecutions relating to the period of the Troubles, as well as inquests and civil litigation, was absolutely deplorable. It was denying people the right to justice, the right to information, the right to a judicial procedure and the right to an appeal procedure that I referred to. It is a fundamental departure from the Stormont House Agreement. The Irish State cannot accept this. The Minister and the Government will have to reiterate this point to the British Government time and again, that this fundamental departure from the Stormont House Agreement will not be accepted by Ireland.

Recently published reports by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland reveal shocking behaviour. My colleague Deputy Brendan Smith has just referred to the handing back of weaponry to loyalist paramilitaries which was used again to target and kill innocents. I also wish to mention the trial of the hooded men. In 1971, 14 men were taken into custody in the North. They were hooded and denied food, water and sleep. White noise was played and they were tortured. They did not see daylight for many days. The UK Supreme Court ruling last December found that the PSNI decision to suspend that investigation case was unlawful. I am surprised there has not been a high level of debate in this House yet, because there are some senior personnel still in the PSNI and some have transferred and now serve with An Garda Síochána. We must have a lens of scrutiny on their roles in suspending that investigation.

I joined my colleague Deputy Brendan Smith earlier today in meeting Stephen Travers of the Miami Showband. It is well worthwhile to listen to him. There have been many documentaries and a great deal written about him. He has gone on an incredible journey, along with his family and friends, to try to get answers and justice. However, that can only happen when the state and the arms of the state, including the police service, fall in behind it.

Finally, I wish to go off on a tiny tangent, if the chairperson will allow me. The necrology wall at Glasnevin Cemetery is very important. I started by speaking about history. It is very important we do not start whitewashing history and saying the events of the past were something good or positive. Mr. Joe Duffy of RTÉ fame was absolutely right to lead the way in having the innocent victims of 1916 all named on the wall of remembrance in Glasnevin Cemetery. However, it should stop there. There is no place on that wall for members of the Royal Irish Constabulary or members of the British armed forces whose existence in Ireland was not to push a bicycle down the village street and tell people to go home because it was closing time in the pub. They were not here for that. They were here from the get-go to suppress the Irish will for independence and freedom. There is an absolute need to walk away from anything that tries to whitewash that a century later and bestow honour on them.

I thought about telephoning Joe Duffy's show a week ago because the debate on the radio was extremely slanted. I wish to state on the record that the innocent victims of 1916 and through to the Civil War period should be commemorated, as well as, indeed, the Irishmen who fought on both sides during the Civil War. We need to move on. However, we will not, as a nation, tip our cap time and again, have an imperial inferiority and say we will commemorate a force whose existence here was solely to subjugate the will of an independent Irish state.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

Since January, the families of more than 30 Irish citizens have received reports from the Police Ombudsman in the North. These reports detail actions by RUC officers and members of the British Army that range from the distribution of weapons, the provision of intelligence documents, the destruction of evidence, the deliberate failure to warn persons of a threat to life in the weeks before they or their loved ones were murdered, and the protection of agents involved in murder from investigation or prosecution, to the contemporaneous criminal wrongdoing of state actors being known and actively covered up. In any society this should cause a national emergency. Unfortunately, it barely caused a ripple on the benches across from me and in this State.

These reports are not just accounts of trauma and grief. They also give rise to fundamental questions about British state involvement in murder. The fallout equally spotlights the lack of British state accountability for crimes, the limits of the Office of the Police Ombudsman and the plight of victims and survivors across the community. How can it be that we see decisions from inquest courts with routine findings of wrongful killing by members of the British Army in the case of the Ballymurphy massacre in 1971 and the killing of 14-year-old Francis Rowntree with a plastic bullet? How can it be that the Police Ombudsman has now found state collusion or collusive behaviours in Mount Vernon, Loughinisland, the north west and south Belfast, yet the prospect of state accountability remains elusive or even contested? All these victims were Irish citizens, yet these reports and findings continue to be treated with minimal interest, perfunctory statements and tea and sympathy. Victims' rights are being routinely abused.

The Irish Government must be more robust in its support of victims of the conflict and its calls for accountability for the policies and practices of collusion and British state violence, just as robust as it is in calling out harms by non-state actors. The Minister should listen to the calls from the United States congressional hearings and victims' groups such as Relatives for Justice and establish an emergency summit on dealing with the past, where questions of victims' rights, human rights compliance and accountability are placed on the political agenda instead of treating these most grave matters as a routine matter of community relations.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

There is general agreement that what the British Government is attempting to do in the amnesty legislation is to put everything under the carpet and not have to deal with the dirty war it fought in Ireland. Let us be clear. Partition was maintained through force. There was a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people maintained by what was always a paramilitary police force in the RUC. Obviously people would not lie down to this, and when they attempted to ask for their rights, they were beaten down by the state and eventually interned and shot.

At one stage British Government policy was to use the British army. It also used the likes of the MRF in the background. Beyond this it was involved substantially in the creation of the UDA. There was the whole idea of muddying the pool, and terror was operated and actioned on the nationalist community. Beyond this, at times, it decided it needed to engage loyalists and put in its own agents or turn people into agents so they could control and direct. This is what is shown in the two Police Ombudsman's reports on those 30 people who were killed. A determination had been made in British policy that it was going to execute Irish citizens. This is no different from what the Glenanne gang had done during the 1970s. We had the likes of Seamus Ludlow killed by another gang. Jack Rooney and Hugh Waters were killed by the Glenanne gang alongside 130 others.

We have not done justice on the issue of collusion. The fact is this was British Government policy. It was the means by which it decided it would deal with republicans. It tried to cow the entire nationalist community through killings. We are talking about the likes of Loughinisland and Sean Graham bookmakers. This State also has to look at its record. I am speaking about Seamus Ludlow and the absolute failure to investigate. Beyond this, the fact is the State did not want to deal with the reality of what the British Government was doing in Ireland. This is something that really needs to be addressed.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

I extend my deepest sympathies, thoughts and prayers to the families named in the Police Ombudsman report on collusion. The British state murdered citizens of that state and then covered up its actions to protect the perpetrators. The information revealed in those documents is incredible. On 5 February 1992, the UDA murdered five nationalists and wounded another nine in Sean Graham bookmaker's shop on the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast. Two men wearing boiler suits and balaclavas pumped 44 shots into their victims. The Police Ombudsman report into this atrocity also investigated the murders of seven other nationalists by RUC special branch informants at the time. These murderers were under the direction and under the employment of the RUC and special branch. Incredibly, the Police Ombudsman report identified eight British informants linked to the murders and attempted murders of 27 people.

A police gun was used in the hands of loyalists. The RUC deliberately destroyed files. It failed to investigate CCTV footage. It failed to search houses of suspects. The RUC failed to conduct a full forensic test on blood. It failed to test a getaway car for gunshot resin. These events and those details in Operation Greenwich are simply part of continuing British Government policy in Ireland that includes Bloody Sunday, the Ballymurphy massacre, the Springhill massacre, Loughinisland, Greysteel, the Miami showband massacre and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. I give credit to Stephen Travers, whom I had the honour of meeting today, for how he has campaigned for justice not only for himself but for many others.

Incredibly, the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has 400 more requests for investigations by other families, victims and survivors. There are 400 outstanding requests that have still to be processed by the Police Ombudsman in the North. These families have been through so much. Thirty or 40 years after the murders of their loved ones, they have had limited details being drip fed slowly by these reports. They have been shockingly slow. Justice has still not been delivered to them. For many of these people what has been revealed in the report confirms what they already know.

We know there is no British justice in Ireland. There is no British rule of law in Ireland. If there is a British amnesty, the perpetrators of these actions will simply get away with murder. We must remember the British military involved in the killings were also involved in the killings of elected representatives such as Councillors Eddie Fullerton and Bernard O'Hagan. They also killed a number of election workers. Incredibly, the British state was threatening the democratic functions of this State at that time. Why did these covert murders happen? It was simply because of the international pushback against Britain after what happened on Bloody Sunday. The British military knew it could not get away again with killing nationalists live on television. It knew it would have to do it in a covert fashion and use loyalist proxies to do so.

Some people may feel this is ancient history. I heard people speak about the fact they are students of history. This happened in our lifetime. The Minister was a Deputy in the same decade that many of the murders in these files happened. The perpetrators of these murders live in the same towns and villages as the families of the dead loved ones. Some of the securocrats involved in this collusion are still in the pay of the British state. Many were promoted in their jobs. We have a British paratrooper who was on the streets of Derry on Bloody Sunday who was given an MBE by the English Queen as a result of his work on Derry's streets. This is the same queen who received a commendation from the Sinn Féin leader last week, which was incredible just 50 years after Bloody Sunday.

Irish republicans, on the other hand, have spent cumulatively 100,000 years in prison. Think about this. Cumulatively, if we add up all of the sentences served by Irish republicans for their actions, it adds up to 100,000 years. There is a massive contrast between the outcome for those actions and the outcome for those who perpetrated murder on behalf of the British state. I cannot think of another western country that would have allowed a neighbouring state to do this to its citizens and have done so little to achieve justice. I cannot honestly think of another European country that would have done so. I appreciate the Government has met the victims. I appreciate the Government has denounced these actions strongly. I appreciate the Government has laid wreaths at the monuments. For sure it has raised this over and over again with the British but all with very little impact.

Operation Kenova is a criminal investigation into RUC involvement in the murder of 18 people alleged to have happened to protect a double agent codenamed Stakeknife. I understand that files in the hands of the Garda are sought by Operation Kenova. I also understand there is a block on those files being given to Jon Boutcher who is in charge of the investigation. That cannot be tolerated. No excuse can be provided for that block. I also know there are many cases where there is enough evidence to prosecute actions that happened in the past. The PSNI is not prosecuting them. I ask the Minister to meet the Chief Constable of the PSNI and demand a way to act on these prosecutions. The information coming to light in these reports could lead to further prosecutions.

The British Government is a signatory to international agreements such as the Good Friday Agreement and the Stormont House Agreement. I appeal to the Minister to use every tool he can to ensure that we hold the British to account with regard to those agreements. I include using Ireland's position on the UN Security Council to ensure an investigation is held into this. The Irish Government must tell the British Government now that if it proceeds with an amnesty with regard to Irish people murdered by the British state, the Irish Government will launch a judicial review against the legislation on the basis it will likely contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, the Good Friday Agreement and the Stormont House Agreement.

If the Minister, Deputy Coveney, was to do that in very clear terms to the British, it would send a very strong message to them that if they proceed with a British amnesty, they will have a legal battle on their hands to achieve it. If the Irish Government does not do that, we in Aontú will do it. We will endeavour to do it through our members who have suffered violence from the British state over the years.

I also ask that the Government seek to create an all-Ireland commission of investigation that would share some of the characteristics of the Smithwick tribunal and would allow for witnesses to come from both sides of the Border to give evidence on what happened with British state collusion. I understand that because it is a different jurisdiction there would be problems with it, that it would not be 100% as effective as we would like it to be, but I also believe that it would shed light on the hundreds of murders that were carried out by the British state in Ireland. I ask the Minister to seek the creation of that commission of investigation as soon as possible.

Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland report, which I absolutely welcome, confirms what many of us presumed was the situation, but without the details, for a long time. I have attended previous presentations from people who have done a great deal of study on this issue of collusion. They have suggested that there were major abuses of policing and of authority in the North of Ireland during all of the Troubles period, and since.

Like everybody else here, I support the position that has been adopted by the Government on the proposal for a statute of limitations. It is one thing that there is all-party agreement in Northern Ireland, but I was very surprised that any government in Westminster made the proposal when all of the parties were against it.

We need to go and investigate what happened. That has been promised a good few times, but to do that we must get sight of all of the files, including all the MI5 files. There is no doubt in my mind not only that there was collusion from police, but that it went to the heart of policy in London in MI5. Until we get to the bottom of what really happened, I do not believe that people will have faith in justice and security issues in that jurisdiction.

It is worth noting here today that since 1998, relatively few prisoners have gone to prison for anything that happened prior to the ceasefires. I can think of one such person because he was a cause of me getting involved in this whole issue all over again back in 2011, and that is Gerry McGeough who was convicted for something that happened in 1982. We have never seen this happen on the other side. To my knowledge, no loyalist, no military and no police were ever convicted of pre-ceasefire events. I understand that there are a handful of others who have been convicted. I believe that even-handedness and fairness is absolutely vital in the enforcement of the law.

I also wish to raise another present issue where there is a huge inequality, particularly if we are not going to try or convict anybody else. It relates to those who were convicted and let out under the Good Friday Agreement. They are not free; they are out on licence. If they commit a crime that has nothing to do with violence - I will not say an ordinary crime, but a crime not associated with any paramilitary activity - their licence can be revoked without another trial. Again, we see a huge inequality of treatment here. This is a real live issue in 2022.

The Minister knows, and I know, that the role of double agents in Northern Ireland is as alive today as it was during the Troubles. We are aware of the McFadden affair, which still has to come to trial. It is a clear case of an agent operating on a double agent basis. I find it totally objectionable that the state is involved in actually encouraging people to get involved in violence.

Another issue I wish to raise is around legacy. Many people have referred very thoroughly to the historic issues, but I have only a limited number of minutes here. As the Minister will be aware, in the separated regime on the republican side in Northern Ireland - I have been on about this endless times and the Minister has heard my representations - strip searching is still going on, otherwise called "full body" searching, even though they know there are no drugs in the republican wing, and anything else they might be bringing in could be ascertainable, as happened in Portlaoise Prison, by other means. The Minister is aware that there is controlled movement in the prisons, whereby no more than four can come out on the landings, even though there are only 12 or 13 such prisoners in total there. The Minister will also know that stop and search has been going on at a very high level with certain families, and family bank accounts have been closed down meaning they cannot get their social welfare payments. Is the Minister aware that there are delays of up to eight years? People are either spending time on remand or on very strict bail conditions whereby they must sign on every day, and effectively they are not able to take up employment. People are waiting up to eight years for a trial. These are all legacy issues. They are a carryover of the treatment that always seems to fall on one side, from the time of the Troubles.

We need to go forward. I have spent the past 11 years trying to encourage people who might have been of a different view to mine that the only way forward is through politics, negotiation, dialogue and peaceful methods. At times I find that one of the biggest barriers to doing so is the behaviour of certain sections. I would very much divide the authorities between the secret authorities and the secret police who answer to London and MI5, as opposed to community policing which tends to operate to a much more open and better community standard. We have many outstanding issues.

A truth commission should be set up, totally separate from the prosecution issue. Everybody is against a statute of limitations, but a truth commission should also be set up rather than relying on an ombudsman to do something on a hotchpotch basis compared to a full truth commission. If there is going to be a truth commission, we need to get sight of the MI5 files and all of the security files held by the British for the period, even though I have a funny feeling that these files would really shock people with a certain reading of events in Northern Ireland if they could get sight of them.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

I acknowledge what Deputy Ó Cuív has said. The Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement met with Mickey Culbert and his organisation with regard to the opportunities for prisoners for the future. Deputy Ó Cuív raises a very important point, which has been heard by the committee and which should be acknowledged in the House, as he has done.

I am very glad to have this opportunity to discuss this important and very difficult report. It shines more light onto this painful past for so many families in Northern Ireland, for survivors of violence, and for the families of those who have been lost to violence.

I would like to offer my condolences to the families of the victims named in this report, families who have acknowledged that they feel vindicated by the report after decades of campaigning for the truth to be published in this way. Of course, it has vindicated what they felt.

The most striking thing for me in the report is, as always, the story of the people and how painful it is in the case of Patrick McErlain, Daniel Cassidy, Bernard O'Hagan, Thomas Donaghy, Patrick Shanaghan, Eddie Fullerton and Gerald Casey, that there have been no prosecutions to date. The stories that are told of them add to our analysis and the honesty we need about the past.

As the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said, whether we are discussing the victims of Bloody Sunday, Kingsmill, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, Birmingham, Omagh, the Sean Graham bookmaker's attack, the Shankill Road, Pat Finucane or Edgar Graham, every family has been affected and has had a loss in an equal way. Every family deserves to be treated in an equal way. Nobody is above the law and every murder must be treated in the same way by the law.

How we address legacy is so important. We simply cannot move forward without addressing the past. We know that from this experience. As we know what it means to families, we continue to resist the outrageous British attempt to override the Stormont House Agreement with an effort to place a statute of limitations on the events of the past. It is directly contradictory to the core Stormont House principles of the dominance of the rule of law and reconciliation. The effort to wipe it under the carpet, as it were, instead of addressing it face on and directly in an open court is a difficult shade from the past.

I commend the Government and the all-party resistance to this. It is something that needs to be taken outside of Ireland, as has been said. The story of the retrenchment by the British Government in stepping back from the rule of law as a basic principle of a democracy and how democratic institutions can and should work has to be told internationally. As Ministers travel over the week of St. Patrick's Day, there will be subtle opportunities here and there to tell that story more broadly. The report identifies significant investigative intelligence failures, a range of collusive behaviours and an unjustifiable use of informants by the special branch. I have run out of time, but I want to say that this report is important for all of the families and all of us. I am glad to have had the opportunity to contribute to this debate today.

Deputy Carol Nolan

A few short weeks ago marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. As we know, it occurred on 30 January 1972. We know that British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march in the Bogside area of Derry. It is a great community, a community which has shown true resilience despite the darkest of times and great suffering. I have visited the community on a number of occasions.

All of the killings in the North were an atrocity, but Bloody Sunday stands out in many ways for the wrong reasons because it was a normal day and peaceful protest. What we saw in documentaries about Bloody Sunday is etched in many people's minds, along with many other events that we remember for, unfortunately, the wrong reasons. We know that 14 people died in Derry - 13 were killed outright while the death of another man four months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from soldiers and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by rubber bullets or batons, two were run down by British Army vehicles, while others were beaten.

The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to protest against interment without trial. It was its absolute right, as it is the right of any group, to hold a peaceful protest, in particular when people were suffering under such injustice and a harsh regime at the time. The soldiers that carried out the atrocity were from the first battalion of the parachute regiment, the same battalion implicated in the Ballymurphy massacre several months earlier. I watched a documentary on that very recently. What happened there was absolutely horrendous, and there are many unanswered questions for families caught up in that who suffered. At one point a priest ran across the green in Ballymurphy and was gunned down. What happened was shocking.

There are questions which need to be answered. We need to ensure that the British Government is held accountable and an amnesty is not the answer. It is not acceptable. It will deepen the wounds of so many suffering families. We need answers, and we need to ensure the Government asks questions and get answers from the British Government.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am glad to have the opportunity to talk about this important subject. Good living people all over the world, in whatever country they are in, look up to the police. Instead of doing their job fairly and properly, police in Northern Ireland threw petrol on the flames at that time. The report has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was collusion at a high level between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries. When we talk about the RUC, we can be sure that what happened went all of the way to the top, including whatever Ministers were in government at the time. They were and are responsible for what happened. When we talk about specific police or soldiers who carried out atrocities or were involved in them, politicians at the highest levels were certainly involved as well. When campaigning during the last election, Boris Johnson said that if he was elected he would grant an amnesty to former policemen. Our thoughts are with the families of those who lost family members or friends and relatives in this way. To deny justice in this way would cause further heartbreak to families, relatives and friends. After all, this happened only an hour up the road from us.

Deputy Michael Collins

Between 1969 and 1999, roughly 3,500 people died as a result of political violence in Northern Ireland. The conflict, often referred to as the Troubles, has its origins in the 1921 division of Ireland and has reflected the struggle between different national, cultural and religious identities.

The latest controversial plans by the British Government to introduce a Troubles amnesty could be postponed until the summer of 2022. These plans will rob victims and their families of any hope of receiving justice and transparency. Under the proposals revealed by Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, last summer, Westminster officials intend to introduce a statue of limitation, a de facto amnesty for Troubles-related incidents. It also plans to end conflict-related civil proceedings and inquests.

Legislation had been expected before Christmas 2021, but this date has slipped. It has now been reported that the contentious Bill may not become law until summer or late spring. Under the current unacceptable British Government plans which were first introduced in July 2021, a statute of limitations will be introduced which would end all prosecutions for Troubles incidents up to April 1998 and would apply to military veterans as well as ex-paramilitaries.

The British Government approach would mean that the views of the victims of the Troubles are being buried. This is reprehensible. Instead, a truly victim-focused process, taking all of the views of those victims into account, must be put front and centre, as set out in the Stormont House Agreement. The British Government has no support for its position in the North or in the Republic. Therefore, the Government must step up and advocate more strongly for the victims' position.

Issuing press statements and soundbites is one thing, but what is really needed is a forthright and robust dialogue with the British Government. The Government must take a defined position on this matter and insist on the setting up of legacy institutions set out under the Stormont House Agreement. After all, their establishment was agreed over seven years ago.

Deputy Thomas Pringle

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the recent publication of the Police Ombudsman's report on the North. The report was an investigation into the police handling of certain paramilitary murders and attempted murders from 1989 to 1993.

This report found incriminating evidence of collusive behaviours between the police force at the time, the RUC, its special branch and loyalist paramilitaries. I start by addressing the fact that I know the report made a point of using the term collusive behaviours, but we should really just call it what it is, which is outright collusion. There is no doubt that what occurred here was collusion and although the report was, of course, a shocking read, it was hardly a surprising one. It was common knowledge that the RUC was working alongside loyalist paramilitaries at the time. It is long overdue for this to be recognised in an official sense, which has now been done with the publication of the Police Ombudsman’s report.

I welcome the publication of this report. As the ombudsman Ms Anderson said, the report shows that the families’ concerns regarding collusion were legitimate and justified. It is about time that these concerns are taken seriously and I am glad that the ombudsman recognised this. The report details a number of failings which led to the arming of the UDA with military assault rifles, failings in the handling of informants suspected of being involved in serious criminality and failings in the handling of police officers passing information to loyalist paramilitaries. The report also detailed the consistent failure of the police to warn individuals of threats to their lives, as well as the deliberate destruction of records relating to informants who were suspected of having been involved in serious criminality. It goes on to look at specific cases that demonstrated evidence of collusion, including the Castlerock murders, the Greysteel murders, the attempted murders of Patrick McErlain and James McCorriston and the murders of Malachy Carey, Daniel Cassidy, Bernard O'Hagan, Thomas Donaghy, Patrick Shanaghan, Gerard Casey and Eddie Fullerton.

Eddie Fullerton was a Sinn Féin councillor in my constituency, Donegal, and was murdered by the UDA in his home in Buncrana on 25 May 1991. This report shows that the police force in the North colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Eddie. It has been found that the police passed on information that assisted the UDA in targeting him and that police officers assisted the UDA in crossing the Border back to the North following his murder. The police force then failed to assist the gardaí in their investigation into Eddie's murder, due to the fact that he was a Sinn Féin elected representative. They failed to inform the gardaí that the weapons used in the murder were also used in other loyalist attacks and they failed to give all available intelligence relating to individuals suspected of having been involved in the murder. Not only did the RUC assist in Eddie Fullerton's murder, but it also assisted in the cover-up of his murder. This is a clear example of collusion. There is no other word for it. Any suggestion that this is merely collusive behaviour is completely disingenuous and only serves to further hurt those affected by the collusion of the police and loyalist paramilitaries in the North at this time.

The silence from the South of Ireland, particularly the Irish Government, regarding this is deafening. I feel that sometimes the Irish State’s role in the North, and particularly the Good Friday Agreement, is forgotten. We must remember that the Good Friday Agreement was intended for the Republic of Ireland as well as the North. I do not think we take our role in the peace process seriously enough. It is up to us to support both communities in the North and to recognise that there is a community in the North that identifies with this State as much as we do. We need to ensure that fairness and equality are championed and that, should evidence of inequality come to light, such as this report, it is taken seriously and condemned.

Even though it was well known that collusion was occurring, very little was done to address issues in policing in the North at the time, or indeed in the South. Although the violent coercion and witness intimidation of the heavy gang in An Garda Síochána has been well documented, it has never been properly investigated. I would call for a similar report in the South to investigate the heavy gang's activities within An Garda Síochána. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties states that rights-based policing should be at the heart of how our police force is run. This is what we should aspire to, North and South.

There is no doubt that the Police Ombudsman's report is damning. The report confirms in black and white that the RUC worked with informers who were part of loyalist paramilitary groups, that targeted individuals such as Eddie Fullerton were not warned of the threat against their lives, and that more than 80 people were murdered by loyalist weapons imported in an arms shipment that the RUC was aware of. Although the report gives evidence to what we already know, it is an important step in recognising and justifying the concerns of the families of the victims and an important step in furthering the peace process in the North.

The report is very clear about RUC collusion but it is important for us to remember that this did not happen in isolation. The British Government was controlling all these organisations through MI5, the police and paramilitaries. They knew what was happening and were not silent observers of the outcome of their policies. That is the big lie of the peace process that has allowed the British to somehow present themselves as innocent observers.

I hope that we in the South start to take a more active role in this process to ensure a fairer and better society across the whole island of Ireland. While there was collusion by the RUC, it was not doing this in isolation or off its own bat, but with the blessing of the British Government. The Irish Government and Parliament have to lay that out clearly. That has to be the final nail to link everything together, because it was part of British Government policy. Other Members have spoken about their surprise at seeing the British Government shutting all this down. I am not at all surprised. Why would it not shut this down? It is at the heart of this. That has to be shown all the way through this.

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Simon Coveney)

Before I respond to what has been said, I, like others, express my condolences to the family of Christopher Stalford, who I knew quite well from time spent in Belfast. He was a tough negotiator, but he was deeply committed to his family, to politics and to the DUP. I express my sincere condolences to his wife, his family, his broader circle of friends and to the DUP as a party, on the untimely death of Christopher.

I thank all those who have spoken this evening and contributed in a full way to this important discussion. The strength of feeling on these issues is very clear. Across this House and across political parties, we share common concerns and a common sense of purpose on the need to address, fully and openly, the darker moments in the history of the conflict on this island for all communities. I know that we stand in solidarity with the families who have been impacted by the Police Ombudsman’s reports and their significant and deeply concerning findings. As I stated at the outset of this debate, these reports are testament to the importance of the work of the office of the Police Ombudsman. The reports are a concrete contribution to dealing with the past. They show that there are important truths that can still be uncovered for families, even regarding such difficult and complex cases. They show that there are important things to be brought to light, not just from the early 1970s, but in significantly more recent times, including the 1990s. The ombudsman’s findings in respect of the significant intelligence and investigative failures she has identified, and the collusive behaviours by the RUC during these periods of time, must be acknowledged fully. It is only through the rigorous examination of past failings that we can have confidence that no such failings will be repeated in future. The victims and families can hopefully feel some measure of comfort that their concerns have been shown to be fully justified and valid. I am sure this does not ease the pain that has undoubtedly been relived with every page of these reports as they read through them.

The peace process has shown the extraordinary capacity of all communities in Northern Ireland to work for reconciliation and a better, brighter future for the next generation. There are young people in Derry, Belfast and Fermanagh who have not known the lived experience of conflict, and that is an achievement once unthinkable, which must be safeguarded. I have taken a consistent message from my meetings with victims, families, political parties and civil society organisations in my time as Minister, which is that until the legacy of the past is addressed, society will continue to carry the burden of the past into the future, and it will rest on the shoulders of the next generation, whether we like it or not. I have seen young people born after the Troubles from families that have been so deeply impacted by trauma that they carry these burdens too. We need to ensure we do not allow the psychological legacy to be passed on without every possible effort to address and reduce it. Wounds will not heal by simply deciding that it is time to move on. We must face it, and acknowledge it, and where a process of justice is possible, it must be applied.

It is only through doing this that we can support a society that can be fully confident in its institutions, in peace and the rule of law, and in the protection of every citizen's fundamental human rights.

As I said, there is undoubtedly significant work and an important role for the Irish Government in addressing the legacy of conflict across this island. We intend to play our full part in that process, and a number of speakers have spoken pointedly in that regard. That is why we passed the Criminal Justice (International Co-Operation) Act to support the Kingsmill inquest and other inquests. That is why we have consistently sought, and continue to seek, an agreed way forward and a comprehensive system that works in both jurisdictions. Together with the British Government and the parties in Northern Ireland, we reached the Stormont House Agreement after an extensive and challenging period of negotiation. We have continued to press for its implementation and to engage to address the concerns the British Government has expressed about its implementation. We will continue to do that and we are ready and willing to see how we might once again find an agreed path forward.

As I made clear today, however, and at every other opportunity, we can move forward on this issue only collectively and we can accept only an approach based on the fundamental principles of truth, justice and the rule of law. That is surely not too much to ask. As I am sure we each experience when we read the reports of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, or when we meet with victims from across the community who have suffered such loss, reflected last month on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the feelings of unfairness and injustice are powerful. The case for a process to address that sense of injustice, through thorough investigation and, where possible, prosecution, is clear.

I will continue, through my engagement with victims, parties and the British Government, to push for genuine progress and to seek to bring about a process that delivers for victims and families and allows for the possibility of reconciliation. This must not be the drawing of a veil but, rather, a clear and transparent system in which families are supported to seek truth and justice and which allows for broader societal progress. I will continue to engage with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to caution strongly against unilateral action or the introduction of a general amnesty that will bring about only extended years of hardship, legal challenge and pain for many families. I will also continue to keep the Members of this House updated on that work. I thank them for their consistent support on this most important and challenging issue.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 23 Feb 2022

Legacy Issues in Northern Ireland and Reports of Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland: Statements

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 23 Feb 2022