The Irish Government has made clear its opposition to any form of prosecution amnesty as part of measures to address the legacy of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.
The administration in Dublin stated its position after it emerged the UK Government was to float a potential amnesty for security force members who served in the region.
The statute of limitations proposal has been inserted into an as yet published public consultation document on potential mechanisms for dealing with the toxic legacy of the conflict.
The move has angered Sinn Fein, which accused the London Government of an “act of bad faith” after a meeting with Theresa May in Downing Street.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams claimed neither his party or the Irish Government had been consulted about the insertion.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin said it would “not look favourably” on any form of amnesty – for security forces or paramilitaries.
A range of mechanisms to deal with the conflict legacy were agreed by Northern Ireland politicians in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement – an amnesty was not among them.
The agreed proposals, including a new independent investigatory unit, a truth recovery body and an oral archive, are on ice due to a small number of outstanding disputes.
The impasse over the legacy bodies predates the current powersharing impasse at Stormont and, in an attempt to move the process on, Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire has proposed conducting a consultation exercise to establish the wider public’s view.
It was anticipated the exercise would focus on the Stormont House Agreement mechanisms, but Sinn Fein emerged from the meeting with the Prime Minister on Tuesday angered that a statute of limitation proposal had been added to the document.
“We understand there is now a new section which is about an amnesty for British Crown forces and that is an act of bad faith,” Mr Adams said outside No 10.
“We weren’t told this, we understand the Irish Government weren’t told this.
“So how on earth can a British Prime Minister seek to persuade anybody that there’s the possibility of a new dispensation emerging when she takes up this position and when her Secretary of State takes up this position also.”
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said the UK Government believed the Stormont House Agreement proposals still represented the “best means” to address the legacy of the conflict.
However, he said for it to be an “open and meaningful consultation” it was right that the public had its say on alternative approaches, such as the statute of limitations proposal.
The DFA spokesman said: “There are no amnesties from prosecution provided for in the Good Friday Agreement or any subsequent agreements including the Stormont House Agreement.
“The Government has been clear that it would not look favourably on any proposal to introduce such a measure, for state or non-state actors.”
Over the last year, the concept of an amnesty has gained traction among some unionist politicians and Tory backbenchers, who claim recent prosecutions of former British soldiers are tantamount to a “witch-hunt”.
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