Declan Morgan estimates up to 650 Troubles investigations could take seven years and half a billion pounds to complete if requisite legislation is passed in London and Dublin.

The Derry-born head of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) outlined the projected cost and duration of legacy investigations during a briefing of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.

The former chief justice said: “Our central estimate is 650 investigations. We are now looking at a timeframe that is a month or so short of seven and a half years. We are talking about trying to produce close to 80 to 90 outcomes per year on average.”

The Derry judge was appointed Chief Commissioner of the ICRIR in 2023.

The controversial body is due to be replaced and renamed the Legacy Commission after a joint framework on dealing with the past was agreed between the Irish and British Governments last year.

At the NIAC on Wednesday past Ronnie Armour, ICRIR interim chief executive, said the work of the Legacy Commission could cost up to half-a-billion pounds.

"That is in relation to the business case that we have submitted. We have put forward a business case to Treasury seeking £628 million,” he said.

NIAC Chair Tonia Antoniazzi described the figure as ‘eye-watering’.

Mr. Armour said it included the £232 million that the ICRIR currently has.

The Chief Commissioner told the committee the body is already dealing with over a hundred cases.

“At the moment, we have 159 investigations which are through eligibility and which we are working on. We have another 57 cases in case support, which are waiting to come through. So we are looking at a workload of over 200 investigations.

"We are dealing with 293 deaths and 310 people who have come to us. We have less than 200 investigators. The cases include Guildford, in which there are probably six, seven or eight different events, other than the bomb that went off, that have to be investigated; the M62 bomb; and the 18 people who were killed at Warrenpoint. It is simply not possible to deal with those cases with these sorts of resources,” he said.