{"id":642523,"date":"2026-06-16T23:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/642523\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:48:14","slug":"troubles-bill-risks-helping-ira-goals-says-ex-minister-al-carns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/642523\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubles bill risks helping IRA goals, says ex-minister Al Carns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former minister said “inquests, inquiries and an independent commission creates a hierarchy of truth” and would cost “hundreds of millions for 15 years”.<\/p>\n

“Painting the state as an aggressor, supporting our adversaries’ political objections and causing untold anguish for those that only ever deployed to protect us,” he added.<\/p>\n

“We have neither the political capital nor the resources to spare for this unjust journey.”<\/p>\n

Labour’s bill was introduced at Westminster last year following agreement on a joint framework<\/a> with the Irish government. <\/p>\n

The plans seek to replace the contentious 2023 Legacy Act, which included a ban on inquests and civil actions related to Troubles-era incidents.<\/p>\n

The new plan involves a Legacy Commission to investigate Troubles-related killings, a separate information recovery body, and a dedicated legacy unit within An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na (Irish police).<\/p>\n

A package of protections for veterans has also been proposed by the UK government, but some MPs have said the measures do not go far enough.<\/p>\n

Stormont’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill has previously accused the government of giving military veterans<\/a> “preferential treatment” when dealing with the legacy of the Troubles. <\/p>\n

The NIO last week said it had “listened closely to the concerns of armed forces associations”.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said the government would “shortly bring forward a substantial package of amendments to further bolster these protections”.<\/p>\n

“Suggestions that veterans will be dragged through the courts are simply wrong,” they added.<\/p>\n

“Our armed forces have always been bound by the rule of law, and those who served honourably and followed the rules have absolutely nothing to fear.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former minister said “inquests, inquiries and an independent commission creates a hierarchy of truth” and would cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-642523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}