What estimate he has made of the total final cost to the public purse of the current public inquiries taking place in Northern Ireland.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry is expected to cost a total of £190 million, including costs incurred by the Ministry of Defence. The Hamill, Wright and Nelson inquiries are expected to cost a combined total of £117 million. The total cost, to the end of January 2009, of all four public inquiries is £267 million, and 70 per cent. of those costs relate to the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

Does the Secretary of State realise that over a quarter of a billion pounds has been spent on the inquiry? When will the time come when the money is spent on investing in a better future for Northern Ireland, rather than on the past?

With huge respect to the hon. Gentleman, I realise that the inquiry cost that much. That is why I have just reported that the total cost was a quarter of a billion pounds. He is right, though, to draw the attention of the House to the very high cost of public inquiries. I am pleased to report to him not only that we are trying to do our best to drive down the cost of inquiries, but that together with my right hon. Friend the Justice Secretary, we are looking at ways of producing better public value from public inquiries.

I listened with great care to what the Secretary of State had to say. Does he not think that it is time to put the past behind us, stop frittering away money on matters that happened 25 years ago, and spend that money on getting people back into employment in Northern Ireland, not on worrying about the past?

Let me commend to the hon. Gentleman the report of Eames and Bradley, which clearly addresses many of the issues that he raises. I caution him on one point: in dealing with the loss of life in Northern Ireland—nearly 4,000 people lost their lives in the course of the troubles—we must all be very careful about describing investigations into the past as "frittering away" public money.