Matt Carthy
Ceist:5. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs to report on his recent engagements with representatives of the British Government. [29062/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 15 June 2023
Ceisteanna (5)
Freagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)
I ask the Tánaiste if he will report on his recent engagement with representatives of the British Government, particularly his engagements in response to the inadequate amendments made to the so-called legacy Bill.
I meet with British Government representatives on a regular basis bilaterally, in multilateral fora and at the British-Irish Council, BIC, and British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, BIIGC.
I attended the last BIC in Blackpool while Taoiseach and will join the current Taoiseach in Jersey for the 39th BIC summit today and tomorrow. I will meet at the summit with representatives of the British Government and the other BIC member administrations, where the focus of discussions will be on Building for the Future: Green and Affordable.
Following the last BIIGC meeting in Dublin in January, I look forward to another substantive engagement with British Ministers at next Monday's BIIGC in London. The conference, established under strand three of the Good Friday Agreement, enables engagement on matters of mutual interest within the competence of the United Kingdom and Irish Governments.
In addition to meeting in BIC and BIIGC formats, I am in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. We spoke by telephone on Monday evening last. This followed our recent face-to-face meetings in Banbridge on 25 May and a lengthy bilateral engagement on 16 May in Dublin. In my recent contacts with the Secretary of State, we spoke about the urgent need to restore the Northern Ireland political institutions. I also reiterated the Government’s ongoing opposition to the British Government’s legacy Bill, which could cause lasting damage to the work of reconciliation on this island.
I engaged with the Secretary of State and other British representatives at the Queen's University Belfast Agreement Twenty Five conference and the Government's Sharing Peace, Sharing Futures: 25 Years of the Good Friday Agreement event at the Abbey Theatre in April.
I met with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February and I hope to engage with him and other British Government and international representatives at the upcoming Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on 21 June.
I thank the Tánaiste for that. The legacy Bill has been well debated in this House and elsewhere. There is unanimous political opposition on this island to the British Government’s proposals. It is not simply something we oppose but also something that breaches unilaterally an agreement reached between the two Governments and the political parties at Stormont House on dealing with legacy in a human rights-compliant manner. The British Government has reiterated it is planning to rush the Bill through both Houses of Westminster to become law by 26 July. That is a travesty and a perversion of the legal process. The objective is clearly to end citizen’s rights to due legal process with a particular view, from a British perspective, to denying people access to information in cases that led to deaths at the hands of British forces in the North. Considering this breaches an agreement reached between the Irish and British Governments and the political parties in 2014, can we go beyond words in challenging the British Government? Is the Tánaiste’s Department looking at mechanisms whereby this can be challenged more forcefully?
The United Kingdom Government published an extensive list of amendments to the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill last week. We have opposed the Bill from the outset. It is a unilateral action and I have been consistent in this House in calling out unilateral actions by the British Government in respect of issues under the Good Friday Agreement. I believe the most effective way forward is a collective approach between the two Governments and, in the context of legacy, the political parties and groups representing families and victims of all those killed and injured during the Troubles.
Our analysis of the amendments published is they will not allay our fundamental concerns or those of many others about this Bill and its compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights. We will continue to urge our UK counterparts to pause the Bill and return to the table in the spirit of partnership. There has been growing international concern about this. We are aware of calls for the Irish Government to take an interstate case against the United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights on the legacy Bill. It is premature to take decisions on that. We will keep this under review and the option is there if our decision is to go down this route. We will continue to engage with the British Government to see if we can get this Bill paused.
I was at Talbot Street on the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings again this year. I commend the Justice for the Forgotten group on ensuring the story of those bombings is more clear and evident, though it is not yet fully transparent because the British Government has refused to accede to wishes expressed on a number of occasions by this House for it to release all its information. Does the Tánaiste mention that when he meets with the British Prime Minister directly? Does he challenge the British Government to release their files on those bombings? Will he, in his next direct engagement with the Prime Minister, privately and publicly call on him to ensure the families of Dublin and Monaghan have what they deserve, which is the truth and perhaps even justice at some stage?
I do, and we have consistently raised the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the need for full disclosure and release of documents pertaining to that atrocity.
I too was at the remembrance ceremony and commemoration. I pay tribute to Justice for the Forgotten for the consistent manner in which it has commemorated those who lost their lives. Its representatives remember those people but also raise the issue of justice. I have met many victims' groups since I became Minister for Foreign Affairs. As Taoiseach, I also met many victims' groups. There is a collective need and obligation on everybody who has information to come forward and to bring closure, if that is possible, to the families of those who have lost their lives and have been murdered, whether by State forces or paramilitary groups. I respectfully say that Sinn Féin also has a role to play in this regard by meeting with victims' groups, particularly in respect of those who were murdered by the Provisional IRA. Better engagement on legacy on that front needs to happen across the board. I have met victims groups who cannot get meetings or information about what happened. That is my view on the broader picture. We must be victim-centred. We are victim-centred and our entire approach in all of this is through the prism of the victims and their families.