Garda Troubles unit which does not investigate anything is 'a gross insult to victims'
The creation of a garda unit to deal with Troubles enquiries – but which will not investigate anything – has been described as a “gross insult”.
Jim Allister, the leader of the TUV, was referring to An Garda Siochana’s Legacy Liaison Unit, which Ireland’s foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee (Fine Gael) announced this week is now up-and-running.
The unit was part of the joint UK-Ireland deal on handling the legacy of the Troubles, which was announced last September and known as “the Joint Framework” (which commits the UK government to a new Troubles Bill, among other things).
Irish justice minister Jim O'Callaghan later went on to reveal that this new garda squad “will not be an investigative unit”.
Instead he indicated it will act as a kind of switchboard, saying that “the purpose of the unit is so that inquiries in Northern Ireland will have a direct contact with Garda Siochana, that they can come to the unit in the knowledge that their requests for information can be provided there as the central authority, rather than having to identify other locations where they can go”.
Mr Allister has now said: “The announcement of a ‘Legacy Liaison Unit’ by the Garda is a gross insult to the countless innocent victims across Northern Ireland because of the fact that the Irish Republic acted as a safe haven from which terrorists could launch attacks at will.
"This body, by the Garda’s own admission, is merely there to ‘endeavour to answer questions that victims or family members may have in relation to An Garda Siochana of Troubles-related investigations’.
“No commitment to pursue justice.
“No pledge to open Garda files to examine alleged collusion.
“No budget to investigate how the Irish state systematically enabled 30 years of republican terror by denying extradition requests, turning a blind eye to the theft of Irish industrial explosives which were deployed in thousands of IRA bombs, or the fact that no one has ever served a day in prison for the murders of RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan – murdered by the IRA after the killers were passed information from within the Garda.
"What a contrast with the legacy mechanisms being set up by the UK government, which have been changed specifically because of Dublin’s demands.
“It is an indictment of our own government that they are keen to bow to Irish pressure when the arrangements in the south are so derisory."
He added: “In the Irish Republic there is to be no truth, no justice and no reckoning – merely a cosmetic exercise designed to manage victims’ expectations while protecting the state from scrutiny.
“For decades Dublin provided sanctuary, weapons, intelligence failures and political cover to Republican terrorists.
"Now, when victims ask for answers, they are offered a helpline instead of an investigation.”
“Until the Irish Government is prepared to open its files, confront its past and subject itself to the same standards it demands of the United Kingdom, its lectures on legacy and human rights will ring hollow to every victim of Republican terror.
“For too long Dublin has simply seen its role as an equality proofing the UK legacy arrangements rather than facing the reality that the Irish Republic played an active role in the Republican terror brought to the streets of Northern Ireland.
"This announcement does nothing to address that truth.”