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MLAs will return to Stormont on Tuesday to discuss controversial government plans to deal with legacy in Northern Ireland Liam McBurney

Stormont politicians reject UK government plans for Troubles 'amnesty'

The Assembly was recalled from its summer recess as anger grows over proposals to deal with legacy in NI.

LAST UPDATE | 20 Jul 2021

NORTHERN IRELAND’S ASSEMBLY has rejected a controversial UK government plan to ban prosecutions for Troubles murders.

In a recalled sitting of the devolved legislature, members backed a non-binding motion denouncing the contentious proposals to introduce a statute of limitations on crimes committed during the Northern Ireland conflict.

The motion, tabled by SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon, passed by way of an oral vote, without any dissenting voices, at the end of a two-hour debate at Stormont.

Earlier, Mallon told the chamber that a prosecution amnesty would not be acceptable in any other modern democracy in the world.

Opening the debate, she accused the UK government of attempting to sweep victims’ pain under the carpet.

She said the proposals would let “perpetrators, state and paramilitary, walk free and instead condemn the victims and their families to a lifetime of pain and suffering through the denial of hope, truth and justice”.

featureimage PA PA

Mallon branded the proposals a “unilateral move” by the UK government to deliver a “Tory party answer to a problem created by that same party and its backbench MPs”.

Backbenchers who have created a bogus myth that an endless parade of veterans are being dragged through the courts here to answer for their past.

“When the fact is that is not true,” she said.

“Rather than debunk the myth and deal in facts, Boris Johnson and Brandon Lewis have decided to cruelly abandon victims and survivors as they play to the gallery.”

As the debate took place in Belfast, some victims of terrorism travelled to Downing Street in London to express opposition.

Other campaigners gathered outside Parliament Buildings at Stormont.

The UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis announced last week that he intends to introduce legislation to create a proposed statute of limitations which would end all prosecutions for incidents up to April 1998 and would apply to military veterans as well as ex-paramilitaries.

The proposals, which UK Prime Minister Johnson said would allow Northern Ireland to “draw a line under the Troubles”, would also end all legacy inquests and civil actions related to the conflict.

But the plan has been heavily criticised by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland as well as the Irish Government, and a range of victims’ and survivors’ groups.

Mallon said the amnesty proposal had devastated and re-traumatised survivors and bereaved families.

“It hasn’t drawn a line.

“It has made the situation worse,” she said.

The Stormont minister added: “This British Government, in doing this, is telling families that their loved one’s life didn’t matter, that their lives, their families’ loss isn’t worthy enough to be properly investigated in a process with integrity.

“It is disgusting and, Mr Speaker, it would not be acceptable in any other modern democracy in the world – and it cannot, and must not, be deemed acceptable here.”

Mallon urged all Stormont parties to unite in their opposition to the amnesty and work together to develop an agreed way forward on dealing with the past.

She said a failure to do so in recent years had created the opportunity for the UK Government to step in and propose the statute of limitations.

Mallon urged parties to recommit to the stalled 2014 Stormont House Agreement proposals, which included an independent investigations unit.

Addressing the chamber during the debate, DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said victims “cannot and should not be ignored in this way”.

“The Secretary of State seems to have chosen a path which finds equivalence between the soldier and police officer, and those who planted the bomb or pulled the trigger,” he said.

“This is morally reprehensible.”

The DUP MLA also criticised Sinn Fein for accusing the UK Government of “covering up the truth”, highlighting that the IRA was responsible for the vast majority of Troubles crimes.

Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the proposals would deny bereaved families their rights.

“The British political system cannot handle the truth,” she told MLAs.

“The British Government fears the bravery, the courage and resilience of the families.”

O’Neill added: “The legacy proposals to deny families any legal redress to justice is a statement of moral bankruptcy.

“The British Government approach is cynical because they’re seeking to insulate their forces from legal challenges by shutting down the established legal options that are open to families.

“Today we must send a very clear message that any political attempts to interfere in live and pending legal proceedings will be resisted by everyone across this House.”

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie voiced opposition to any move toward an amnesty.

“We have been quite clear that the soldier, the policeman, a terrorist, a member of the public or a politician, if you break the law, then you should face the law,” he said.

“And everybody deserves the opportunity to get justice.

“It doesn’t mean they always will, but we cannot take away that hope.”

However, Beattie also criticised the 2014 Stormont House legacy proposals, highlighting that they did not envisage a reinvestigation of crimes, other than murders.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the legacy proposals were “neither victim-centred or victim-focused”.

“To the contrary, both the proposals and how they have spun out in the media before any victims groups were even aware they were coming have re-traumatised many families, compounded the hurt and sense of abandonment which they feel and has sought to rob them of any remaining hope they had that they might ever see justice for their loved ones,” she said.

Long also queried “what kind of message” the legacy proposals send to those still engaged in terrorism and to their victims.

“The Secretary of State’s proposals are profoundly flawed and not grounded on the needs of victims’ families for truth and justice,” she said.

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seosamh
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:01 AM

    Big business are the only ones making serious money during this, small businesses fending for themselves.

    115
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    Mute Michael Kelly
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:07 AM

    @Seosamh: So you don’t welcome the creation of over 1000 jobs? And Aldi from what I know are decent employers. I see the same people working in my local one for years.

    304
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    Mute Nioe
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:20 AM

    @Michael Kelly: they’re not creating jobs. People don’t eat twice as much food they just change where they buy. They are just taking market share from other irish shops, corner shops, markets etc which probably provide more jobs per euro spent.

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    Mute Dobby Dooo Dooo
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:24 AM

    @Nioe: We all have a choice of where we shop. I do a supermarket shop and still support smaller local shops for meat, fish, newspaper etc. And the local shops in my area are always busy…

    55
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    Mute Jim Beatty
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:40 AM

    @Nioe: nail on the head

    28
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    Mute Nioe
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    Jan 13th 2021, 10:13 AM

    @Dobby Dooo Dooo: of course we choose where to shop. I have no issue with aldi or tesco or whoever. All I’m saying is that a certain amount of money is spent and certain number of people are employed in the grocery sector, which will rise with population. That does not jump overnight because a new shop opens, it just moves around with market share. It is not job or demand creation. It is market share expansion.

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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    Jan 13th 2021, 11:41 AM

    @Nioe: There are other factors too. The country’s population has grown by about 30 percent over the last 20 years. That creates new demand.

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    Mute Nioe
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    Jan 13th 2021, 12:13 PM

    @Earth Traveller: I said that in my comment above.

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    Mute Berkieahern3
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    Jan 13th 2021, 1:19 PM

    @Jim Beatty: you can be sure the nail you buy in Super valu is twice the price of the one in Aldi though!!

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    Mute Seosamh
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    Jan 13th 2021, 1:36 PM

    @Michael Kelly: My gripe is not with Aldi, it’s the so called government.

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    Mute Leitrim303
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    Jan 13th 2021, 5:46 PM

    @Nioe: who can afford to shop in a corner shop

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    Mute Stephen East
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:27 AM

    Local Aldi and Lidl they restrict people going in but once in its a free for all, Always felt these shops workers are under a lot of pressure as i see them running around like headless chickens almost running with pallets barely looking if anyone is there and when i have seen people talking to workers they almost look irritated like they are thinking stop talking to me i need to get the shelves filled

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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:49 AM

    @Stephen East: I think the staff in my local aldi and lidl are very helpful. It’s not a free for all. People might browse longer in the meat or fruit and vegetable section. Do you expect the staff to move people along once inside?

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    Mute Sean Dalton
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    Jan 13th 2021, 10:33 AM

    @Stephen East: its personal responsibility when your in a shop. What do you want staff with cattle prods at each aisle moving people along?

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    Mute Tom Houlihan
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    Jan 13th 2021, 11:41 AM

    This is incorrect. They will
    Not create ‘jobs’. You won’t eat more because there is another supermarket in town. You may just buy less in the other supermarkets and they will lay off staff .

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    Mute Berkieahern3
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    Jan 13th 2021, 1:17 PM

    Fair play, they seem like descent employers. Same staff in the shop in my town for over 10 years now. And nice people aswell.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Jan 13th 2021, 1:41 PM

    @Berkieahern3:
    And a lot of their products are Irish produced. Every so often they stock stuff by small producers starting out in business.

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    Mute Virgil
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    Jan 13th 2021, 10:38 AM

    As you enter Clifden, capital of Connemara, the first thing you see is… Aldi. Ah well, I suppose you can’t eat the landscape

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    Mute Joe Vlogs
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    Jan 13th 2021, 2:08 PM

    @Virgil: great thing too since it arrived. Locals are saved a one and a half hour drive to Galway or Westport to find a grocery store. Connemara is not just a summer holiday destination…people actually live here too.

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    Mute Declan McArdle
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:14 AM

    What about opening stores in Northern Ireland???

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:15 AM

    @Declan McArdle: take your issues to the Telegraph

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    Mute Cian Nolan
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    Jan 13th 2021, 9:55 AM

    @Declan McAr

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    Mute Declan McArdle
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    Jan 13th 2021, 10:14 AM

    @thomas patrick: Belfast Telegraph or the Toryograph in the UK?

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    Mute Pat Murphy
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    Jan 13th 2021, 11:09 AM

    @Declan McArdle: not in the eu so lol

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    Mute Aunties
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    Jan 13th 2021, 10:02 AM

    Beep beep beep.

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    Mute Maalouf
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    Jan 13th 2021, 12:32 PM

    I always shop and support local business. That’s why I only shop in Tesco Metro.

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    Mute Michael Kelly
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    Jan 13th 2021, 11:27 AM

    Good news we need it

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    Mute Dave
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    Jan 13th 2021, 4:48 PM

    A friend of mine loves working for Aldi but is always busy, she barely gets any free time and her day consists of “Manager required at till 3″ ” Till 4 will now be open”…

    Only for it to close 2 minutes later and a further 1 minute later shes back at it again ” Till 3 will now be open”

    4
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