Following on from the Stormont House Agreement, the Irish and British Governments came to an agreement to establish the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval, ICIR. The ICIR agreement was signed by the Irish Minister in 2015 and laid before the Oireachtas in January 2016. The objective of the ICIR was to enable victims and survivors to seek and privately receive information about the deaths of their kin in the conflict. The independent commission will only be formally established after the necessary legislation has been enacted and the two Governments have notified each other of completion of all other domestic legal procedures required to bring the agreement into force. When will the Government complete this domestic legal procedure, and when will we see the ICIR agreement being established?

We might have made more progress on this but for the arrival of the Brexit decision and the fact that 2016 was a different year, with the election and a long period in between before a partnership Government was put together. I strongly supported the principle behind the agreement. The heads of this Bill are being prepared here. I will advise Deputy Crowe of the current state of preparation. The intention is that where somebody lost a loved one, however far back, whatever information is available, from whatever source, will be produced by an independent adjudicator. It remains to be seen whether that will become a reality. There were many difficult cases over many years, as the Deputy is well aware, where people were not able to find out the full truth and extent of what actually happened. I will advise Deputy Crowe of the progress being made on the heads of the Bill.