The UK and Irish governments are working intensively to find an agreed “landing zone” on a revised framework for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles, Ireland’s deputy premier has said.
Tanaiste Simon Harris was commenting after a round of meetings with political leaders in Belfast on Monday.
Mr Harris said he was engaging with Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn to see if it was possible to deliver a “joint framework agreement” in the coming weeks.
Since taking office last year, the Labour government in London has pledged to repeal and replace some of the provisions of the contentious Legacy Act that was introduced by the last Conservative government.
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 halted scores of civil cases and inquests into Troubles deaths and also offered conditional immunity to perpetrators of conflict-related crimes in exchange for their co-operation with a new investigatory and truth recovery body.
The Act was opposed by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland, the Irish government and many victims’ representative groups.
Mr Harris said the ongoing work with his UK counterpart was an attempt to move “beyond the dark shadow and the huge pain caused by the Legacy Act”.
“I wanted to meet all of the political parties to get their sense of the way forward on legacy issues,” the Fine Gael leader said after Monday’s meetings at Parliament Buildings, Stormont.
“I’m conscious this is an extraordinarily sensitive area, but I have been working intensively with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in recent months really to see if it is possible to find a landing zone that can allow the two governments to agree a framework in terms of legacy issues in the coming weeks.
“Listening to the parties today, of course, people have different perspectives, people come at this from different viewpoints (but) I do think they’re all united in wanting to see a way forward for victims and their families. I think that’s very genuine across all the parties.
“And I now, on the back of this, intend to continue to work with the Secretary of State, but also intend to continue to meet with and listen to victims groups. I met a number last week. I’ll be meeting a number in the weeks ahead.”
He added: “I … want to move to an infrastructure around legacy that can provide all families with truth and justice in a way that simply hasn’t been forthcoming so far.
“I’m very conscious when I meet with victims’ families – and people are getting older now, I mean, you’re talking to people who are in their 80s and their 90s – and they’re desperately looking for answers and information that has been withheld from them or that they have been deprived of to date.
“This process, this peace process, has always worked best when the two governments pull together as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement.
“And that’s really where my focus is – on trying to see if there is a way to move beyond the dark shadow and the huge pain caused by the Legacy Act as it currently is, to a much higher terrain where there’s an infrastructure around legacy that’s human rights compliant, that’s victim-centred, and that can provide confidence across the communities in Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland.”
In 2023, the Irish government initiated an interstate legal case against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights, claiming the Legacy Act breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The case remains active, with ministers in Dublin wanting to see how Labour resolves its concerns over the legislation before any decision is taken to withdraw the action.
Commenting on the case on Monday, Mr Harris told reporters: “The Irish government never wanted to be in a position where it had to take its nearest neighbour to an international court.
“We did so more out of sorrow than anger, because we could not find another mechanism to address issues.
“We explored every diplomatic and political channel available. And human rights matters, international law matters, and we felt it was important in support of victims and their families to take that case.
“Of course, if we get to a point of agreement – and we’re not there – in terms of a framework, and if that agreement is then faithfully translated into legislation, of course, at that stage, I will engage with government colleagues in terms of deciding if the time is right to take a different course of action in relation to the interstate case.
“But the priority right now and the focus right now is to intensively engage with the Secretary of State to see if it’s possible to have a joint framework agreement in the next number of weeks.”
Mr Benn said the UK Government had been working “very hard” in discussions with the Irish Government to find a way forward.
He said: “We were elected on a commitment to repeal and replace the Legacy Act. It’s been found to be unlawful in a number of respects.
“Any government that came into power last July would have had to do something about it, but I want to come up with arrangements.
“They may not satisfy everyone, but I want to get the widest possible support so that above all, the people, the families who’ve been waiting sometimes for decades to really find out what happened to their loved ones, can get the answers that they have for too long been searching for.”
