Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of questions I want to pose, but at the outset I would like to address the Crowley report and the murder of Mr. Aidan McAnespie. I noted carefully the replies the Minister gave. He stated, and I welcome what he said, that progress can be made on this issue. The Minister went on to say that there was material in the report that it was not possible to release. I have been mulling this over while following the rest of the debate. I also note that the Minister has indicated that he will hopefully meet with the McAnespie family during the summer recess, which I welcome. I find it hard to understand that there would be material in this report that it is "not possible to release". This is what I have scribbled down and the Minister can correct me if I got it wrong. It poses the question as to whether Assistant Commissioner Crowley confined his engagements with witnesses to his brief. I was one of those witnesses. Did he confine his engagement with witnesses to his brief to the murder of Mr. Aidan McAnespie and what Mr. Aidan McAnespie had been subjected to in the period leading up to his death? I find it hard to understand that if Assistant Commissioner Crowley focused only on Mr. Aidan McAnespie and his story that there could be any difficulty in publishing this report. Did Assistant Commissioner Crowley stray from his brief in any respect? I know, and can absolutely attest, that Mr. Aidan McAnespie was a young, innocent and nationalist male. That is universally accepted. He did not deserve to die when he did, and how he did. What can it be about this report that poses such questions and such difficulties? I very genuinely and sincerely put the proposition to the Minister to write to all 40 odd of us who appeared before Assistant Commissioner Crowley. I can still recollect the opportunity I had.

I cannot for the life of me believe that the report cannot be published, particularly if it related to the murder of Aidan McAnespie and all that led up to it. I was only able to give an account of my meeting and subsequent engagement with the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich. Again, I would like to acknowledge the latter as a most open and sincerely concerned representative voice at that time. Although I was an elected representative, I did not have access to the Minister's predecessor in those days.

I am concerned. I am of the view that John McAnespie, at 83 years of age, is entitled - as are all the members of his family and all who have worked so hard over the years - to get the full truth. We need all the truth in respect of the murder of Aidan McAnespie. If Deputy Commissioner Crowley strayed from the matter being addressed, I hope that, as the Minister indicated in his first response, progress can be made on this issue. I am only interested - and I would expect that most anyone else is only interested - in what was relevant and pertinent in respect of the murder of Aidan McAnespie and all that he had been subjected to in the years leading up to his death. Would the Minister like to respond?