Letter: We will name British state murderers in the Dail if Legacy Bill becomes law

I have written to the Cathaoirleach of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement seeking an emergency meeting of the committee to be organised to discuss the Legacy Bill and the mothballed assembly. I have also sought that invitations be issued to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mícheal Martin, the British Secretary of State for the North of Ireland Chris Heaton Harris and for the leader of the DUP Jeffery Donaldson to attend the meeting.

The relationship between Ireland and Britain is in a dark place. The Good Friday Agreement is in cold storage. The human rights of victims and survivors north and south is about to take an enormous hit. Yet there is nothing happening at a political level. Mícheal Martin, Chris Heaton Harris are co guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement. They are paid a good wage to deliver but we see nothing but inertia.

The issue of truth and justice is key to the human rights of our citizens and to the Good Friday Agreement yet the British Legacy Bill is imminent. It will wreck any chance of truth and justice for thousands of people. The Irish government cannot stand idly by any more. The Irish government needs to state publicly that they will take the British government to the European Court of Human Rights if they proceed with the Legacy Bill. They must do this now. The British government are unilaterally shredding democratic and justice norms in their relation with Ireland. The Irish government’s inertia is not the correct response to this. Everything that can be done must be done now to stop the Legacy Bill.

The democratic institutions of the Good Friday Agreement, the institutions of the people are in cold storage for an age now. And all the while public services such as health, education, housing and transport are corroding. Poverty, drug abuse and suicides are stalking communities wreaking havoc and destruction among families. Yet there is no one at the wheel. This would not be tolerable in any other democratic state. It cannot be tolerable here. The DUP Leader Jeffery Donaldson has questions to answer. His party’s boycott cannot be allowed to continue. The rules underpinning the democratic institutions must be changed to prevent collapse happening ever again.

Aontú has successfully pushed the Commission of Investigation (Collusion of British State Forces) Bill 2022 through first stage of the Dáil. The purpose of this Bill is to provide for a public inquiry into collusion between British State forces and other groups and individuals between 1968 and 1998. The inquiry would investigate where the British state either committed murder, assisted in the committing of murder or prevented prosecution of certain serious offences in Ireland north and south. Aontú has also stated that we will name British state murderers in the Dáil if the Legacy Bill becomes law. We urge the Irish government to strengthen their opposition to this horrendous unilateral British actions.

Le dea-ghuí,

Peadar Tóibin, Meath Weast TD, Leader of Aontú