By Kevin Mullan

Copyright derryjournal

Tánaiste Simon Harris TD and Secretary of State Hilary Benn MP revealed the proposal while outlining a new Joint Framework to address the legacy of the Troubles on Friday. The framework pledges to fundamentally reform the ICRIR, ‘strengthening its independence, governance and powers and putting in place a new conflict of interest policy’. It will ultimately be renamed the Legacy Commission. The ICRIR was set up under the Legacy Act, which is to be repealed. The British Government has also agreed to allow the small number of inquests stopped in their tracks by the Legacy Act to resume, with other previously directed inquests subject to a robust independent assessment by the Solicitor General. No new inquests will be ordered and investigations instead will be conducted via the Legacy Commission in future. The Irish Government, meanwhile, has pledged to facilitate the fullest possible co-operation of the relevant Irish authorities with the Legacy Commission. A new legacy unit is to be set up in An Garda Síochána to investigate all unresolved Troubles-related incidents in Ireland. The Governments also agreed to put in place mechanisms based on the principles of the 2014 Stormont House Agreement including establishing a new cross-jurisdictional Independent Commission for Information Recovery (ICIR), as was originally agreed under that accord. Speaking at Hillsborough Castle, Mr. Benn, said: “As Secretary of State I have been determined to help those families, who lost loved ones in the Troubles, including relatives of the families of British service people who did not come home, to find the answers they have long been seeking. “The previous government’s flawed, undeliverable and widely opposed Legacy Act has caused great pain and anguish to many people in Northern Ireland. “I believe that this framework, underpinned by new co-operation from both our governments, represents the best way forward to finally make progress on the unfinished business of the Good Friday agreement. “And I hope that having read what we are proposing, the communities who were most affected by the Troubles will see this as a way forward in which they can have confidence, and will therefore give this plan a fair chance.” The Tánaiste said: “The Joint Framework provides for sweeping reforms of the mechanisms designed to address the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and across this island. “Agreement on the framework represents a welcome return to a partnership approach on Northern Ireland by the two governments. As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, that partnership is essential to progress peace and reconciliation on this island. “The 2023 UK Legacy Act was unilaterally conceived, unilaterally drafted, and unilaterally implemented. Today is a step-change from that. “The Joint Framework will bring about root and branch reform of the UK Legacy Act and the commission it established.” Deputy Harris said the framework will ‘completely overhaul the independence and governance of ICRIR, renaming it the Legacy Commission and putting in place a statutory Independent Oversight Board, robust conflict of interest provisions, a Victims and Survivors Advisory Group and an independent appointments panel advising on senior appointments’. ICRIR confirms just four responses to consultation on trauma-informed approach to legacy “Since the beginning of the year, I have listened to victims’ families and those working to support and represent them. For them, delivery is the real, and only, test. “I believe that what we have agreed can deliver for families,” he stated. The Tánaiste believes the framework can meet two key tests: compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights; and confidence from the families of those killed. Under the proposals six special protections are to be introduced for British Army veterans asked to engage with the legacy process. They will have a right to stay at home; protection from repeated investigations; protection in old age; a right to seek anonymity; protection from cold calling; and a right to have voices heard, it has been agreed. Minister for the British Armed Forces Al Carns MP said: “We are replacing the Legacy Act to allow service families access to the truth and closure, while putting in place specific and real protections for our veterans and Armed Forces community, to ensure the process can never again be used as a punishment.” Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “The aim of this package of measures is to provide mechanisms for truth, accountability and justice for victims and survivors of the Troubles, and their families. “In all my engagements with Prime Minister Starmer to date, and before that, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn, we have agreed on the importance of finding a way forward together on this most fundamental, yet unresolved, issue. “Today marks the start of a new framework of partnership, which recognises the enormity and enduring pain of the legacy of the violence of the Troubles for so many, and our essential responsibility to address that legacy as we work towards truer reconciliation.” Hanna urges Benn to commit to ‘root-and-branch reform’ of ICRIR Gráinne Teggart, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for NI, said: “We will carefully examine this framework to assess whether it fully complies with the European Convention on Human Rights and whether it can genuinely deliver for victims. For too long, families have been met with secrecy, impunity and the denial of their right to truth, this must end. “Full transparency, genuine accountability and the right to truth have been denied for decades. Root-and-branch reform of legacy mechanisms must be more than a rebrand. Victims have been clear: they will not accept half-measures. Any process must put rights at the centre and deliver truth and accountability, not erase them. “The detail in forthcoming legislation will be critical to determining whether this framework is meaningful. Amnesty has long called for the Legacy Act to be replaced with a process that builds on the Stormont House Agreement, has the confidence and participation of victims, and meets human rights standards. This framework and subsequent legislation must meet those tests and be changed or rejected if they fail them.” Family of Dennis Heaney issue hard-hitting letter to Hilary Benn urging him to scrap ICRIR