The British government on Wednesday proposed to halt all prosecutions of British soldiers who served during three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland and of militants involved in the bloodshed, which cost some 3,600 lives.
London has said prosecutions linked to the violence are increasingly unlikely to result in convictions, but allegations over unresolved crimes from Northern Ireland's "Troubles" remain a contentious issue 23 years after a peace deal was struck.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the move towards what he described as amounting to a general amnesty for all security personnel and militants of murders and other crimes was not the right way to go "for many, many reasons".
Northern Ireland's main political parties and many victims groups have also been critical of introducing a statute of limitations on the alleged offences of British military, Irish nationalist militants and pro-British "loyalist" paramilitaries.
"We know the prospect of the end of criminal prosecutions will be difficult for some to accept. This is not a position that we take lightly," Britain's Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis told parliament.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; editing by Michael Holden)
