Northern Ireland’s First Minister has raised concerns about proposals outlined by the Labour Government for dealing with the region’s troubled past.
Michelle O’Neill questioned the blocking of compensation for former internees, a national insurance veto on information retrieval and a “high bar” for legacy inquests to be restarted.
She also queried when a public inquiry into the death of GAA official Sean Brown would start.
The draft laws were announced last week come after the Government previously unveiled a joint framework agreed with the Irish government designed to address a long impasse on legacy issues.
The framework, and associated legislation published on Tuesday, represent the Government’s attempt to fundamentally reform the mechanisms established in the previous government’s controversial 2023 Legacy Act.
Ms O’Neill said ultimately the success of any legacy arrangements relied on the confidence of victims and survivors.
She said the publication last week of the draft legislation “begins to test the credibility” of the UK Government’s approach.
“Perhaps the deputy First Minister and I won’t have the same opinion on this, but certainly, in my opinion, the inclusion of a clause to change the law and block compensation for former internees is an act of bad faith,” she said.
“That approach was ruled unlawful in 2020 yet here we have the British Government reintroducing this again.
“I’m also concerned about the national security veto. So what does that mean in terms of people getting access to information that will now firmly fall at the discretion of the British Secretary of State, and I just don’t see how that sits well in terms of being able to have a process that people can have confidence in.
“Then on inquests, the bar for the re-establishment appears to be so high, very few inquests will actually be reopened.
“Obviously we’re still working our way through it and I suppose the other big glaring issue that’s that’s missing from what has been published so far is the issue of the Sean Brown public inquiry, the fact that High Court is ruled five times that there must be a public inquiry and yet the British Government seemed to be deaf to to those legal calls.
“So we’re not going to give up on that, and we’re going to continue to push the case and to stand with the family.”
She added: “If we are going to successfully allow victims and families to have access to truth and justice who have been waiting for far too long to get such access to truth and justice, some for more than five decades, we have to have a process that actually can command confidence, that is human rights compliant, that will enjoy the support of many victims and survivors.
“Any process in itself has to earn their respect and their confidence, and then obviously needs to hold on to their confidence so I think all that is going to be tested in the weeks, months and years ahead.”
