The transition to the Legacy Commission has to leave these problems behind or lose fragile public confidence.

Sir Declan Morgan, Chief Commissioner ICRIR

The combined impact of the May report on the functioning of the ICRIR and Nuala O’Loan’s scathing criticism that it was ‘”set up to fail” is bound to dismay its unbiased supporters. The HR issues are bad enough,  perhaps emerging from the problems of recruiting a mix of skills for a number of different roles.  But criticisms from an expert on policing and justice such as Baroness O’Loan is even more damaging. Her charge that the ICRIR  was set-up to fail because it lacked  adequate powers to conduct in depth Investigations flatly contradicts Chief Commissioner Declan Morgan’s declared confidence in the commission’s ability to do its job even without the incentive of conditional amnesty. At least it has been spared a repetition of the charge of conflict of interest against former local police officers investigating former  colleagues.

However, having so far not completed a single case and run up costs of £60 million, amounts to a case to answer. True, many investigations into difficult cases can take longer than two years.  And having received  over 400 requests  is evidence that victims as a whole have by no means written the commission  off. However,  hiring an outside expert to assess the adequacy of its powers is an admission that at the very least reassurance is necessary.  If these criticisms are  shown to be valid,  it is as well they surfaced now, before the ICRIR transitions to the more reformed and concentrated role as the Legacy Commission.

Brian Walker

Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London