Member's statement: Irish Government: Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery
Member's statement by Mrs Deborah Erskine on .
- MLA
- Mrs Deborah Erskine
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 23 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Irish Government: Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5636708
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Last Wednesday, at the Executive Office Committee, we heard evidence from the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR). Today, many innocent victims across Northern Ireland will have woken up at the beginning of yet another day on which they will not receive justice for the murder of their loved one and hear the truth about what happened to them. Vital evidence relating to their case is sitting there, but, shamefully, the Irish Government are sitting on their hands. They continue to lecture others, yet they fail to provide innocent victims with the chance to see perpetrators of violence brought to account for their heinous actions. That was laid bare last Wednesday when representatives from the ICRIR said that they had written to the Irish Government 11 or 12 times without receiving any form of reply from them. That is shameful. The Irish Government's failure to cooperate has been highlighted by my party leader repeatedly, but it was stark to hear the figures directly from Peter Sheridan. The Irish Government have continually sought to lecture the UK on legacy issues whilst doing nothing to help victims and survivors find out the truth about what happened to them. During the Troubles, there were over 500 murders along the border. In many cases, the attacks were launched from the Republic of Ireland, with the perpetrators also finding refuge in the South. What are the Irish Government hiding? It is interesting that, for years, Sinn Féin has called on the UK Government to provide information, yet its silence on the Irish Government is deafening. There are people who sit in the Chamber who know exactly the truth about what happened, yet they are prepared to lie about their involvement in the IRA. They heap trauma and hurt on innocent families as they continue to laud and celebrate the victim makers: the perpetrators of violence. The Irish Government are no better. Recently, in a letter to the Executive Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade indicated that it would do all that it could to assist legacy investigations.
However, that amounts to nothing more than gaslighting of the worst kind of those who have had to live with needless pain and grief at the hands of terrorists. The Irish Government's position is indefensible, in the same way as those who sit on the Benches opposite continue to glorify and laud the bomb maker and those who pulled the trigger.
407 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism
Flagged on a second assessment, because Jev’s answers did not settle it. The reasons are given below.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.65 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- Criteria met: Dog-whistle messaging (0.63).
- The text adopts the identity-based framing in its own voice (0.56).
- Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
- The answers did not meet either automatic threshold.
What a flag means. A flag means the activity contains at least one instance of culture-war framing that met the published test. It does not mean the whole activity is divisive, or that its substantive arguments are wrong.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Second assessment
Jev’s answers did not settle this record, so a second model, claude-opus-5-5, read the same text (without the MLA’s name or party) and gave its reasons on 23 October 2026. How the second assessment works
- Verdict
- Flagged
- Public interest or divisiveness
- Mixed
Against the published rubric
The statement starts from a genuine legacy issue: the commission told a committee it had written to the Irish Government "11 or 12 times" without reply, which is a legitimate point about cooperation with investigations. It then broadens into an attack on Members "on the Benches opposite", saying they "lie about their involvement in the IRA" and "glorify and laud the bomb maker", and it insinuates concealment ("What are the Irish Government hiding?"). These closing lines are a sweeping attack on a political grouping over its relationship to the Troubles. Under the rubric's legacy and political-opinion examples, that is antagonism and competing-legacy point-scoring rather than scrutiny.
Public interest or divisiveness
The point about the Irish Government's failure to respond to the commission serves victims and is a fair matter for scrutiny. However, much of the statement, including its conclusion, sets one side's account of the Troubles against those "who continue to laud and celebrate the victim makers". Its evident function is to continue a communal legacy argument and to condemn opponents as a group. Both elements are substantial, but the divisive element is the one the statement builds towards.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.40 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.35 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.04 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.63 | Yes |
| Controversy escalation | 0.21 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.49 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.65 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.26 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.17 |
| Adopts it (chosen) | 0.56 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.98 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
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