Brendan Smith demands repeal of British legacy legislation, access

I sincerely hope that in any discussions, regardless of the agenda with the British government, with the British Prime Minister, members of the British government, that the British government's despicable and deplorable legacy legislation is discussed. Many times in this House and within parliamentary parties and at Oireachtas committees, we have unanimously called for the repeal of that legislation. No amendment by the British government of that legislation will ever make it acceptable to the victims and to the families of victims who have suffered so much for many, many decades now. I also sincerely hope, Taoiseach, that you raise the ongoing issue of the Dublin Monaghan bombings of 1974, where again, I think on four occasions in this House, there were unanimous calls on the British government to give access to an independent international legal person, to all papers and files pertaining to those tragedies on that day in both my own constituency and in Dublin City. I've always, as you know, have referred to other atrocities in my own constituency and particularly the Belturbet bombing of December 1972 when young innocent teenagers were killed. In all of the discussions with the British government, whether it's with us at parliamentary level or at government level and at head of government level in particular, the need to address legacy and reconciliations must be to the forefront in all discussions. And Taoiseach, I'd like an assurance that those issues were raised in all discussions with the British government, with the British Prime Minister and other members of that government as well. Thank you. Thank you. A number of deputies raised the issue of the legacy legislation. And could I say that I want to remind deputies that it was I who took the decision as Minister of Foreign Affairs to refer that legislation to the European Council for Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights. And to be fair to the new government in the United Kingdom, they have moved on to remove core aspects of the legacy legislation, particularly in respect of immunity and also other areas of that. Now, they, and I've discussed this at length with Hilary Benn, the Minister, sorry, the Secretary of State. And I know Tanisha Simon Harris is now engaging. And the core issue being around, the Commission being both having a separate strand in terms of information and investigation and other issues as well. Those discussions are ongoing between officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and officials in the Secretary of State Northern Ireland Office around can the Commission, if you like, or ICRA, be reformed in a manner that would be, that would win back the confidence of victims groups. And we have engaged with all of the victims groups or officials have, and I've met them as well, personally, in respect of the issues that have arisen. But there has been progress. We need to put that on the record compared to what was there in the original bill that was tabled by the then Conservative government. And the, also, the inquests are restored, and the civil cases in particular. So that's progress. But it's not enough. And we have to continue to work on it. In terms of, and I would say more generally around the legacy issue, I'm watching, I'd watch Say Nothing on the Disney Channel. And there's a whole lot of issues of bombings, murder, kidnapping of Jean McConville, where there's been no real attempt at closure, no real attempt at reconciliation, no attempt to say what happened was wrong. And it was, just, if you look at the episode on the bombing of the Old Bailey, 200 innocent British people injured and maimed. Like, what was all that about? So I think we do need to deal with legacy in the most comprehensive way. I think it's striking we haven't had a debate on Canova in this House. There's a comprehensive report. It deals with collusion between the state, the British state, and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of innocent people, and indeed of others. But it also deals with the campaign of the provisional IRA in terms of against its own people, as Canova describes it. But this House hasn't even had a debate on that. And that's something we should consider in terms of the comprehensive aspect of dealing with legacy. Because it does matter for future generations that these issues are properly teased out in terms of the use of violence for political lens on Dublin-Monaghan. I'm very clear that any material we have should be given to any inquiry. Just hear me out, please, a second. It happened, it has happened already, where bespoke legislation was passed in respect of Kingsmills, for example, and where the judge there did pay tribute to the Irish government. I'm clear, and I've been saying to the Minister for Justice and the Minister's predecessor, that in respect of the OMA bombing, again, there's an inquiry up and running, that information should be provided by our government and our Department of Justice in particular to that. And just to make the point that on the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, it was previous Fianna Fianna Fianna governments that led the way in terms of inquiries into the Dublin-Monaghan bombing. And we know the outcome of the various reports in terms of access to the British files.