Irish government not cooperating on several legacy cases, committee hears

Senior figures in a body set up to investigate Troubles legacy killings have criticised the Irish government for its lack of cooperation on several cases.

Sir Declan Morgan, chief commissioner of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), said that the Irish government was "not providing us with information relating to investigations".

MLAs sitting on the Stormont Executive Office committee were also told that the Irish government had not responded to any letters from the commission relating to several cases.

The organisation is currently investigating 123 cases, which Sir Declan said was more murders than the Metropolitan Police had in the course of a year.

BBC News NI has contacted the Irish government for comment.

The ICRIR was set up under the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act.

It was established to investigate deaths and serious injuries during the Troubles and began operating in May 2024.

DUP assembly member (MLA) Deborah Erskine asked Sir Declan how "big of a block" the lack of cooperation from the Irish government was, adding that it was "heaping trauma upon innocent victims" such as the families of those killed in the Provisional IRA's bombing of Enniskillen in 1987.

Sir Declan said: "The present position is that Ireland is not providing us with information in relation to investigations.

"What we want, in order to make this work, is what we have with other agencies… a disclosure protocol."

Sir Declan said he had already raised the matter previously with the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster.

Peter Sheridan, the ICRIR's commissioner for investigations, said he was "into double figures" in terms of the number of requests made to the Irish government.

"Victims' families will know we've made requests for information but I've had no response to any of them, " Sheridan said.

"Sir Declan and I met with Justin Kelly, the Garda Commissioner back in January and there's no reluctance on the guards but it's a political issue.

"The politics of it has to be resolved for the guards to be able to release the information but there's no response to any of my letters to date."

Sheridan said outstanding pieces of information can be potentially crucial in any case.

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw and chair of the Stormont Executive committee asked Sir Declan whether this lack of co-operation was because the Irish government was waiting to pass its own legislation or if it could do it now.

He responded: "They could do it now if they wanted to."

"But they have indicated their legislation to do it will not be put before the Dáil until the legacy bill has been passed," Sir Declan said.

"We're in a position where the legacy bill is critical in a number of respects for us continuing and succeeding in our work."

The 2023 Legacy Act was introduced by the previous Conservative government and offered conditional immunity for perpetrators of some Troubles' crimes in exchange for co-operation with the ICRIR.

The Labour government has since introduced a new bill in parliament, with MPs already having voted to repeal the conditional immunity provision.

Sheridan outlined how "some 500 deaths" occurred along the border.

Sir Declan said he was aware that there are some people with cases who had not gone to the commission for help because they were aware the Republic of Ireland had not yet committed to providing information.

MLAs were told that the 123 investigations ongoing included some of the most infamous bombings in Northern Ireland's history, such as the 1974 Guildford bomb, the 1976 Kingsmills massacre and the killings of 18 soldiers and one civilian at Narrow Water in 1979.

So far, four cases had "completed their investigative process" and had moved to the "findings" stage.

Last month, an independent review found the ICRIR was facing significant problems with financial management, leadership conflict and staff morale.

Sheridan also outlined to MLAs how the organisation was running at less than 50% of the resources it needed, while Sir Declan described an ongoing discussion with the Treasury as "vital".

"If we end up in a situation where we have half the resource that we need to do the job, we are in trouble," he said.

He added: "If [the discussion] doesn't work out, I will be back [at committee] in relation to what exactly we would do in those circumstances because maybe we would have to think about the temporary closure of the organisation in terms of accepting new receipts – all options would be open at that stage."

Sir Declan said that when the ICRIR was first set up in May 2024 they were at risk of being "completely overwhelmed".

"I think there is no doubt that starting as we did, in the state of very limited preparedness that we were in, has cost us," he told MLAs, recalling the length of time it had taken to vet staff and how the general election in July had set them back.

"We were thrown to the wolves, there was no space or resource… we had to wait months for the new government's members to go through the vetting process and then we came back on to the track again.

"It was another factor that undoubtedly contributed to the fact that were in a powerless state for the first six months at least of the organisation."