As this developed over time, it would have been better to have called it a little bit
of a scheme openly and to have put a better structure around it and in so far as, generically
I'm the Prime Minister, I'm responsible for the entire government, and I take responsibility
for that.
I totally understand the feelings of people who say, in respect of the criminal offence
and the terror offence, a member of my family lost their life, they should not have had
the letter and as a result of this scheme they got a letter, or as a result of the misapplication
of the scheme they did, I understand that completely. I simply say two things to you
about this. The first is that I defend completely the issue of these letters to people who the
prosecuting authorities had decided were not going to be prosecuted and charged because,
had we not been doing that we would've had literally nothing in respect of the demand
to deal with the whole of the on-the-runs issue. And the second thing I would say to
you is, and reviewing the papers again as I have over the last few days for giving evidence
here, this issue of on-the-runs was absolutely critical to this process and that certain
points became fundamental to it. If I'd literally been saying we're not dealing with this at
all in any way at all, I think- you can never be sure of these things but I think it's likely
that the process would have collapsed.
By that, do you- By that you mean Sinn Fein would have walked away?
Correct.
I simply say this to you, purpose in everything we tried to do was to create peace in Northern
Ireland so that there weren't more victims of terrorism and more families distressed
at losing loved ones as a result of that terrorism. When we decided on the Good Friday agreement
that we would release convicted prisoners, no-one felt anything but repugnance at doing
that because you're releasing the people form prison who committed serious criminal offences,
but we would not have got a deal with Northern Ireland, we would not have peace unless we
had made that provision in the Northern Ireland agreement and once you do that, this issue
of what you do about people who are so called on-the-run that had not been convicted, that
has to be dealt with, so, I understand the depth of the feeling but I do have to emphasise
I was dealing with this pretty much week-in, week-out and that crucial points of this,
this issue was absolutely vital in the continuation of the Northern Ireland peace process.
I wanna bring this back to the victims, because the victims ion all of this have actually
been lost. Behind you in that galley are the victims of the Hyde park bombings' family.
There's many other victims from Kingsmill and many other massacres across Northern Ireland.
There's people there who's part of the 95 victims who- sorry, the 300 victims who the
95 people who received letters are holding. I wondered if you wanted to take the opportunity
now to turn around to these victims and apologise to them for the catastrophic error that your
government was involved in.
I accept full responsibility because I'm the Prime Minister, I should take responsibility
for everything that happens in a government which I am Prime Minister. Full responsibility
for not having put in place a structure for this procedure that might have meant, in the
Downey case, as Lady Justice Hallett finds, that the letter would not have been sent and
therefore the trial would have proceeded. So, for that, I take responsibility and I
feel sorry for those people and I apologise to those people who have suffered as a result
of that, but I am not going to apologise for sending those letters to those who should
have received those letters because, without having done that, we would not have a Northern
Ireland peace process in place today.
So you're apologising for error but not for the process-
No, look, these people have suffered enormously from what has happened. The reason I spent
time and effort, and I think I am justified in saying beyond what any Prime Minister before
me or since me has done in Northern Ireland, is so that more victims of terrorism and more
families would not suffer. And, right at this moment, if we did not have a Northern Ireland
peace process, right at this moment when, as we can see with events elsewhere, we are
dealing with a new kind of terrorism, we would still be dealing with terrorism from Northern
Ireland-
Mr. Blair, was your fondness for Mr Adams- did that tarnish or help you lose perspective
on the sort of arrangement that needed to be put in place, which made you ask the attorney
general to keep going a step further, a step further, when he had already given you advice
that this was a step too far?
I dealt with many people in the Northern Ireland peace process. Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness,
David Trimble, your father Ian whom I ended up having a respect because they were prepared
to do difficult things in the interest of peace and the reason-
Did you lose perspective because of that fondness?
It was not a fondness-
You say it was not a fondness, this is what you said. You said, in terms of Martin McGuinness
and Gerry Adams, they're an extraordinary couple. Over time came to like them greatly.
I came to like both greatly, perhaps more than I should have. These people who you liked
greatly were members of the Provisional IRA Army Council, were responsible for taking
decision to blow up Hyde Park, to murder citizens in our nation. You like them greatly. Did
that affect your judgement in dealing with them on this issue because they kept pressing
you and pressing you and pushing you and they're nice guys, we're on the sofa together, was
it nice that we could get a deal around this issue of on-the-runs?
It had nothing to do with whatever personal relationship, I like, them, I don't like them,
whatever. Without dealing with this issue, we would not have had a Northern Ireland Peace
Process. Now look, lets be very clear about this, because it's a point of absolute division
between us, you would not have voted, in fact didn't, for the Good Friday agreement. You
would not have supported the provision releasing convicted prisoners, never mind people who
might be convicted, convicted prisoners. You would not have voted for that.
Well let me just say that how I vote is my business.
No, I'm sorry, in this instance it is not your business because when you're questioning
me as the decision-maker, you sit in the decision-making seat for a moment. How
many people round this committee, if they'd been negotiating the Good Friday agreement, would have
put their hands up to release convicted killers from prison? Probably not a majority on this committee
but I'm telling you without that provision in the Northern Ireland agreement we would
not have had peace.