The first findings from investigations carried out by a truth recovery body examining Troubles deaths could be delivered in the first half of 2025, Sir Declan Morgan has said.
The chief commissioner of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) also said he believed there is a “changed atmosphere” which could see the body gain access to information which would have been hidden in the past.
The ICRIR confirmed on Monday that it had received 85 inquiries since becoming operational on May 1st and that so far eight of those had been moved into the information recovery stage.
Sir Declan said it had been very difficult in advance to know what the engagement with the ICRIR would be.
He said: “Clearly there were serious concerns about the (Legacy) Act and some problems within the Act which caused people to not see the commission in a good light and not to accept it could do for them what we think it can do.
“We didn’t really have an expectation as such as to what would come through.
“We do think the 85 cases that we have got through is certainly a start which enables us to do the thing that we want to do, which is to demonstrate that we do what we say.”
Asked about timescales for completing their first investigations, the commission chief said that would be unlikely to happen this year.
He added: “But I think we will have findings in the following year and it may be in the first half of the year rather than at the end of the year.
“I think that process will increase as we go along.
“When we get to that stage then that is the stage that people will begin to scrutinise if we have done what we said we were going to do.”
The former lord chief justice said he believed the PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher and the new Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn were committed to providing families with as much information as possible.
He said: “I think that if you look at the question of information recovery, there is a history in our background of complaints that information has been hidden, that people have not co-operated in terms of producing it.
“I think that means we have to be vigilant. Although we have the power we need to make sure everybody understands we are getting all the information.
“We are very fortunate that we have a chief constable who is well versed in this area and is totally committed to ensuring that we get everything from the PSNI that they possibly can in relation to these cases.
“I think we are fortunate in having a Secretary of State who has publicly said that he is committed to providing all the information that he can.”
Sir Declan also said he believed that lessons had been learnt from the experiences of the Legacy Inquest Unit, which delivered reports into a number of historical Troubles deaths.
He pointed out that the ICRIR has wider powers than coroners.
He said: “The fact that the inquests received that information shows there is at least a basis for thinking that maybe the problems that undoubtedly arose 10, 15, 20 years ago … that maybe there is a change of atmosphere now and we are much more likely to be able to achieve compliance with our requests.”
