Debate contribution: Legacy: Holding the Irish Government to Account
Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on .
- MLA
- Mr Jon Burrows
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 23 September 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Legacy: Holding the Irish Government to Account
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5129361
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As I said yesterday, these are solemn matters. The proposals merit serious consideration, because we owe it to the victims. I will take exception: the Ulster Unionist Party is examining the proposals very closely. We will try to shape, bend and influence whatever the outcome is. There are lots of things that can be done constructively. That is why we have set out our guiding principles, which put victims first. There is a big issue with how the Irish state has dealt with the Troubles not just during the conflict and the terrorist campaign, with the lack of extraditions — fewer than one in 10 — etc but with the amnesty. It is a really serious issue. I now have the video clip where Michael McDowell says loudly and clearly that members of Sinn Féin lobbied for an amnesty and that the Government gave that amnesty and instructed an Garda Síochána not to investigate any crime anywhere on the island of Ireland. Not only was that shameful and done without legislation and transparency, my big concern, which I am putting on the record today, is that, when a state gives a solemn undertaking not to do something and, 25 years later, says that it will start reinvestigating crimes, that is a "breach of an executive undertaking", as it is called in law, and an abuse of executive power. That is what caused the issues in the Downey trial. Downey was told — there is a specific issue with his letter — that he would not be prosecuted in that case. When he was prosecuted, the judge rightly said that that was an abuse of executive power. Sinn Féin's former colleagues in the IRA are sitting on a potential "Get out of jail free" card. That is why we will ask the Irish Government for two things. One —
Members at the back of the Chamber are laughing; I do not find it funny. I will give you some examples. Let me say first what we will ask of the Irish Government: number one, a full report. Let us have a transparent report on what was offered to whom. I also want to see legal advice. What are the implications? Could they scupper an Garda Síochána in bringing those former comrades to justice? Let me tell you about one former comrade, Seamus Kearney. This example highlights the hypocrisy. In 1981, Seamus Kearney waited in a hospital car park. John Proctor, a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was visiting his newborn son in the maternity ward. When he came back and got into his car, who was waiting for him? Seamus Kearney, the freedom fighter for Ireland. He was smoking a cigarette, and he pumped rounds into that man, whose son grew up without him. Here is the thing: we were told at the time of the Good Friday Agreement that we had to accept that people would get out after two years, but that was it; there was nothing else. What happened when the police brought Seamus Kearney to justice under the provisions of the Belfast Agreement, by which he would get two years? Former Sinn Féin south Derry MLA Ian Milne said that it was a vindictive prosecution, because he had been good republican. I would hate to see a bad republican, but this is the point: Sinn Féin has opposed the rule of law being implemented as agreed under the Belfast Agreement, just as the Republic of Ireland has opposed it in giving an amnesty. The UK should be suing the Republic of Ireland, not the other way around. Here is the thing: I condemn every loyalist paramilitary. The Shankill butcher was as evil as the Shankill bomber. Any rogue former colleague of mine — one joined the Glenanne Gang — is a traitor and should be put in prison. I call for anyone who did such things to be stripped of all pensions. We stand by every victim, but, in reality, 99% of the people who did wrong were paramilitaries. We need to put the victims first, and we can do so only if we build the legacy agreement on solid foundations. The Irish Government need first to publish what was agreed with Sinn Féin and tell us what the legal outworkings of that are. Will that scupper an Garda Síochána in investigating Troubles-related crime? We ask the Irish Government — we want to look forward — who will staff the new an Garda Síochána unit. We are told that the investigation unit that will be part of the legacy commission up here must have a non-Northern Ireland director of investigations, so we say that the an Garda Síochána unit must have a non-Republic of Ireland investigator to oversee it. Who provides the insight and the oversight? Both states should give unredacted intelligence to investigators. I know for a fact — no one can challenge this point; I will finish on it — that the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) gets unredacted, unvarnished intelligence from the security services. How the ICRIR releases that is a different issue, but it gets it. An Garda Síochána and G2, as it was formerly known, will not give that, but we need to make sure that they do so. I agree that we should put victims first, but there are massive issues. I support the motion. The Republic of Ireland has a lot of ground to make up —
— and I hope that it can.
918 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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