Lord Empey: Any u-turn by DUP on their making major strategic mistake over the legacy proposals is welcome

But as stated on page four ‘...no agreement is asked or required from the parties for those commitments’.

The commitments referred to are those made by both governments. The document has no legal status but is a political commentary about what they believed was possible or desirable.

Once the assembly was recalled, the Northern Ireland Act sets out the responsibilities and entitlements of each party, and my party exercised its rights under the act to select a ministerial post. I feel it useful to spell out what has not been clear in the media. Phrases like ‘…the parties have signed up to …etc’ imply that we agree to all that is in the document. We did not.

For the last seven years the Ulster Unionist Party has consistently opposed the proposals relating to legacy which were formalised at Stormont House but previously introduced to us by DUP representatives Jeffrey Donaldson MP and Emma Little-Pengelly in December 2013.

We believe that these proposals, especially the establishment of the Historical Inquiries Unit, are totally unnecessary, disproportionate and not fair or balanced. The establishment of a parallel police force with full powers is neither necessary or having the potential to satisfy victims that the truth can be established about what happened to their loved ones.

The chances of prosecutions arising from investigations are remote.

Former Justice Minister David Ford commented that ‘…the HIU might at best produce one or two prosecutions.’

The other matter arising from the proposal is the vast cost involved. I think it will be between £400-£500 million over 10 to 12 years.

Against a background of outrageous waiting lists in the health service, staff shortages, poor mental health and suicide, to say nothing about our education system or creaking infrastructure and Brexit, to seriously commit such a huge sum of money to a fundamentally flawed process is totally unjustifiable.

I believe It was Sinn Fein who, at a late stage in these recent negotiations, put in a request for the ‘within 100 days’ element of the legacy commitment to be added.

It has all along been Sinn Fein’s demand to create circumstances where they could build a narrative that the security forces were the main aggressors during our ‘Troubles.’

They know that only the state has records whereas terrorist organisations, loyalist or republican, do not.

We are being told this week that the DUP is doing a partial u-turn on its support for aspects of the Stormont House proposals. This demonstrates a pattern of behaviour by the DUP of making major strategic mistakes and then retreating from the consequences of their actions.

This latest u-turn reminds me of their behaviour over the shrine for republicans at the Maze prison site, when they agreed a plan with Sinn Fein and with the famous ‘letter from Florida’ Peter Robinson reneged on the deal after huge pressure from the victims community.

They did the same thing on October 2 when they agreed Boris Johnson’s plan for a regulatory border in the Irish Sea, and having realised their mistake, tried to distance themselves from it after less than two weeks.

Is this history repeating itself: is this the Maze prison debacle Mk 2?

I welcome any change of heart. After all, the HIU was their idea.

I do not believe that Arlene Foster was unaware of what was in the New Decade, New Approach document before it was published.

Is this just sleight of hand? Are the DUP once again backing off in the face of universal negative reaction from victims and other unionists?

Moving on to the language and culture related issues, as my party’s lead negotiator on Strand One issues during the 1998 Mitchell Talks, I can assure you that many steps were taken to address cultural and identity issues.

It is noteworthy, that at no time did Sinn Fein ask for an Irish language act, stand alone or otherwise.

We agreed several measures, resolving broadcasting in Irish, Irish medium schooling, the establishment of Foras na Gaeilge (whose functions now seem totally irrelevant as a result of the latest proposals) and of course the UK has signed the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages leading to regular four yearly inspections.

The proposal to establish an ‘Office of Identity and Cultural Expression’ is a grievance factory in the making and the proposal to have simultaneous translation in the Assembly for ‘Ulster Scots’ is absolute nonsense.

The assembly should never have been collapsed in the first place and the brutal truth is that it has only been restored because HMG has largely acceded to the demands of those who collapsed it in the first place!

Having taken on the massive and difficult health portfolio, the UUP cannot be accused of not being prepared to do our bit for progress, but we won’t be blind to those corrosive measures which risk long term damage to our position within the Union and to the community at large.