Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Northern Ireland Office

Oral Answers to Questions

David Mowat Excerpts
Wednesday 28th January 2015

(9 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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David Mowat Portrait David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)
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3. What assessment her Department has made of the role of the voluntary sector in dealing with the legacy of the past.

Andrew Murrison Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Dr Andrew Murrison)
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Voluntary sector organisations provide invaluable support for those whose lives have been changed for ever as a result of Northern Ireland’s troubled past. I have visited some of them and I pay tribute to their work, which I know from my dealings with victims and their families is deeply appreciated by many in Northern Ireland and beyond.

David Mowat Portrait David Mowat
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The recent Stormont House agreement acknowledged that victims of the troubles from outside Northern Ireland should also be formally recognised, and the oral history archive that is to be set up is a mechanism for doing that. Will my hon. Friend support a role for the Warrington-based Foundation for Peace in co-ordinating input to the archive for such victims?

Andrew Murrison Portrait Dr Murrison
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Yes, and I pay tribute once again to my hon. Friend’s contribution to this and his support for the Warrington peace centre and its important work. It is explicit in the Stormont House agreement that the oral history archive will be established for the whole of the United Kingdom, and it will be keen to hear the accounts of the troubles of people in Warrington and throughout the United Kingdom. I look forward to that forming a part of the oral history archive in due course.