Northern Ireland: On-the-runs Debate

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Department: Wales Office

Northern Ireland: On-the-runs

Lord Trimble Excerpts
Tuesday 8th April 2014

(10 years, 8 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Randerson Portrait Baroness Randerson
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My Lords, it is an administrative review and will not be conducted according to the 2005 Act. This Government have always been clear that we have reservations about the use of public inquiries to deal with the past. There is an issue about the length of time that many of them take and there is in this case a clear public interest in early publication of the report.

Lord Trimble Portrait Lord Trimble (Con)
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My Lords, I wonder whether the Government intend that the inquiry—or review, as it is now termed—will go ahead without having heard from the people who designed the process, the then Secretary of State and Mr Gerard Adams. Is it satisfactory to try to operate without having the power to compel Mr Adams to come to give evidence?

Baroness Randerson Portrait Baroness Randerson
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My Lords, government officials will of course appear before the inquiry and will give evidence. Others will be invited to do so. It is entirely up to Lady Justice Hallett how she reads her remit in that regard, from whom she will request evidence and how far she takes the scope of her inquiry, but, for the reasons to which I have already referred, she is asked to report by the end of June at the latest.