O’Loan says new commission needed in North

Former police ombudsman for Northern Ireland Baroness Nuala O'Loan has called for a new and independent commission to investigate conflict deaths during the Troubles.

She said the multi-agency approach to investigations, involving the PSNI, police ombudsman, the HET (Historical Enquiries Team) and the coroner, was ineffective and a waste of limited resources.

She said the new body must be “fully empowered and fully resourced”, with a remit to examine any Troubles-related cases up to 2006, the date of the St Andrews Agreement.

The new body could be jointly funded by the UK, Irish and US governments, with the aim of reinforcing the “fragile peace” in the region.

Many of the people involved “seem to be afraid of the truth in the North”, she said, afraid “that if we investigate all these cases we will have to face some very difficult realities which may separate us still further”.

Speaking at the Kennedy Summer School, in New Ross, Co Wexford, on the topic of truth and reconciliation, the baroness said the political impasse in Northern Ireland over issues including welfare reform, parades, the past and flags suggested it was "time for the British and Irish governments to begin to play their part" in Northern Irish politics again.

“Our problems are their problems and their responsibilities. Devolution can achieve so much but our politicians do not seem capable of making things work in Northern Ireland.”

Sectarianism is at “the root of the inability of our elected politicians to do that for which they were elected. At the root of it all lie the three issues of the past, flags and parades, which have divided us for so long.”

Responding to First Minister Peter Robinson's comments in the Belfast Telegraph this week, that the Northern Executive was "no longer fit for purpose", the baroness said it had been "known for years that it seems incapable of dealing with issues such as education and health. In the three-plus years of the current Assembly some 27 bills have became law. It is not much in three years."

She said truth and reconciliation were the cornerstones of future peace in Northern Ireland, but the relationship between the two was problematic.