ICRIR: Irish government not cooperating on several legacy cases, committee hears

Last month, an independent review found the ICRIR was facing significant problems with financial management, leadership conflict and staff morale.

Sheridan also outlined to MLAs how the organisation was running at less than 50% of the resources it needed, while Sir Declan described an ongoing discussion with the Treasury as “vital”.

“If we end up in a situation where we have half the resource that we need to do the job, we are in trouble,” he said.

He added: “If [the discussion] doesn’t work out, I will be back [at committee] in relation to what exactly we would do in those circumstances because maybe we would have to think about the temporary closure of the organisation in terms of accepting new receipts – all options would be open at that stage.”

Sir Declan said that when the ICRIR was first set up in May 2024 they were at risk of being “completely overwhelmed”.

“I think there is no doubt that starting as we did, in the state of very limited preparedness that we were in, has cost us,” he told MLAs, recalling the length of time it had taken to vet staff and how the general election in July had set them back.

“We were thrown to the wolves, there was no space or resource… we had to wait months for the new government’s members to go through the vetting process and then we came back on to the track again.

“It was another factor that undoubtedly contributed to the fact that were in a powerless state for the first six months at least of the organisation.”