A LEADING victims’ campaigner has hit out at a controversial body which investigates Troubles-related killings.
In a scathing review into the operation of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) which was published this week, it was found that the body faces significant problems with leadership conflict, financial management and staff morale.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn said he was deeply concerned with the findings in Peter May’s review, while former Police Ombudsman Baroness Nuala O’Loan said there is “something fundamentally very wrong” with the ICRIR.
In response, Chief Commissioner of the ICRIR, Declan Morgan, said he was “deeply sorry that this has happened on my watch.”
The ICRIR was set up under the Conservative government’s controversial Legacy Act with many victims’ groups refusing to work with it due to its perceived lack of independence.
Another failing that was identified by the review was that the ICRIR had yet to publish a single investigation report since it began in May 2024.
Responding, Mark Thompson, CEO of Relatives For Justice (RFJ), said that over the same period from the formation of the ICRIR, and with a fraction of the staff and resources, RFJ had published nine full family reports “with another four imminent”.
“It is beyond comprehension that an organisation with nearly 300 staff and £250million at its disposal has not completed one report yet, and issued one call for eyewitnesses,” he said.
“The track record of disfunction and lack of delivery vindicates families’ instincts and experience that this institution was never designed to deliver to families. It is a carefully constructed white elephant of British state impunity which deliberately cannot deliver to families’ rights or needs.”
Recent family reports published by Relatives For Justice
The independent review was commissioned by the British government after concerns about the ICRIR's corporate effectiveness.
In the wake of the review Secretary of State Hilary Benn said: “What has been identified is unacceptable and falls below the standards expected. It is for ICRIR Board to take whatever steps are necessary and appropriate to address this.”
He added: “Through the Troubles Bill this government is committed to reforming ICRIR – which will become the Legacy Commission – to improve the process for all involved and build wider confidence. Nothing must detract from the continuation of the Commission’s vital work to help families to find the answers they have long been searching for.”
This week Relatives For Justice published its latest family report, this time into the UVF murder of Harry Muldoon in Ardoyne in October 1984 which also examines collusion between the UVF and RUC in the murder.
