PSNI officer says any on-the-run letters inquiry could take up to a decade

The investigation into the 228 republicans who were given letters saying that they were not wanted for prosecution could take up to a decade because of spending cuts, a top Police Service of Northern Ireland officer has warned MPs.

Earlier this year, the PSNI had hoped that 30 detectives would spend two to three years reviewing the intelligence and evidence existing against the group who received the so- called on-the-runs letters.

However, newly promoted PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris told the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee yesterday that just 17 officers were currently investigating 28 cases.

The on-the-run letters became public after the High Court in London ruled that John Downey could not be tried for murder over the 1982 Hyde Park bombings because he had wrongly been told in 2007 that he was not wanted for prosecution.

Stretching timetable

Questioned by Independent MP Lady

Sylvia Hermon

, Mr Harris said the timetable “could stretch out to three times” the original estimate.

Members of the Commons inquiry have expressed frustration at former British prime minister Tony Blair’s repeated failure to agree a date to give evidence.

Former northern secretary Peter Mandelson told MPs earlier that he had believed in 2000 that the names of four republicans given pardons would be published – as happens when they are issued in Britain.

His predecessor Mo Mowlam had "marked my card" when he took up office that the case of senior Sinn Féin activist Rita O'Hare, who was wanted for the attempted murder of a British soldier, needed to be dealt with, he said.

He had ended efforts to extradite IRA suspects from the Republic and ensured that people who had been jailed in the North but then escaped to the Republic, were not wanted to finish off their sentences in the North.

However, he had told Mr Blair that it was “impossible” to grant immunity to people who had never been convicted because of the outrage that such a move would generate in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

On the letters, which were issued long after he had left Stormont, he said he had never been “in the business of sending secret side-letters” or going beyond the Belfast Agreement.

Asked by Democratic Unionist MP Ian Paisley jnr if he had been asked to help Ms O'Hare "to evade justice", Mr Mandelson said he had to balance "the need to get justice" and the need to "make sure that there no more Rita O'Hares in the future".

Significantly, however, and contrary to the views expressed by two of his successors, Peter Hain and Shaun Woodward, Mr Mandelson said he did not believe that Sinn Féin would have quit the peace process if he had rejected its demands outright.

“No longer standing by”

In September, Northern Secretary

Theresa Villiers

said the British government was “no longer standing by” the letters and that those who had received them should no longer rely on them as a defence.

Repeatedly critical of her, he said a secretary of state would have to ask whether such a decision was justified, fair to the recipients and whether it weakened the peace process and alienated republicans.

Implying that the answer to all of these questions is a negative, Mr Mandelson said that he was “not clear” that her decision to cancel the letters makes it “easier” to deal with the on-the-runs.