Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad that a number of issues were raised. I am keen to address them. The first issue was in respect to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and Seamus Ludlow. As people know, last month marked the 47th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974, in which 33 were killed and hundreds seriously injured. These attacks saw the largest loss of life of any day of the Troubles, as everyone knows. The Government reaffirmed its commitment in the programme for Government to seek access for an independent international judicial figure to all original documents relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the murder of Seamus Ludlow and related cases in line with the three all-party Dáil motions to which Deputy Brendan Smith referred. The Government has a long-standing request made to the British Government in this respect. The absence of response is of concern and has been the topic of discussion on several occasions between me and various counterparts in the British Government in recent years.

At the meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference last week, I raised the concerns and requests of repeated Oireachtas motions relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and related cases, including that of Seamus Ludlow, and the absence of a response from the British Government. The Secretary of State agreed to come back to us with a formal response to the case. We will continue to wait to see what happens there.

For what it is worth, our officials have regular contact with the families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and will continue to do so. We know the families were encouraged by Jon Boutcher's team looking at their case. The families want that route to be pursued further.

The Belturbet bombing was raised by my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Heather Humphreys, at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference last week. At the meeting the Minister for Justice raised the need for progress on the bombings and asked the UK Government to secure movement on these cases. Again, the Secretary of State agreed to come back to the Government on this issue.

I wish to reassure committee members that we raise these cases all the time in formal formats like the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and, separately and privately, when we are discussing other issues. We will keep raising these issues because they are very much part of the broader legacy cases. We will raise the Finucane case as well and I imagine committee members will be interested in that and in the need to get clarity from the British Government on a full investigation.

The point made by Deputy Brendan Smith was that if the British Government is serious about trying to find a way forward on legacy issues and building trust and faith on both sides of the Border in that process, then there are things it can do in respect of individual cases.

The Irish Government also needs to be convincing in how it is co-operating with investigations, inquests and cases relating to many families, predominantly within the unionist community, whether those relate to Kingsmill or anywhere else for that matter. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror as well as ask the hard questions and make sure we are contributing to establishing the truth and achieving justice. We need to ask if the Irish Government can do more. From my perspective as Minister for Foreign Affairs, I want to facilitate processes that can establish the truth for everybody. We know there are accusations that are still current. The Irish Government has contributed to hiding information that may be there and is not being provided to inquests and so on. I would like to hear from anyone who has any evidence to suggest that the Irish Government is withholding information on any case. I will act on any such information. I have given that assurance to families linked to Kingsmill and others. We need to continue to be convincing and reassuring in that space. We also need to be demanding of the British Government in terms of it playing its part for many of the other atrocities that it can help to contribute to establishing the truth of.

Senator McGreehan asked how we can encourage the UK Government to be a partner in this. We are now buying into this process. There are many reasons to be sceptical and to believe that we are not going to make the progress we would like to. However, we all have an obligation to try to be as positive as possible and buy into this process to see can we find a way forward that can be accepted by the two Governments, the parties and the vast majority of victims' families. That is ultimately what this process is about. If we cannot do that, the outcome will not be good. It will, in fact, be worse because we would be back to square one. In that scenario, we make the case for the Stormont House Agreement, it does not get implemented because others do not agree, and families are asked to wait until some political or legal mechanism can allow cases to be taken forward individually on the basis of inquests, an investigation by the PSNI, or whatever. We have an obligation to be more proactive and to try to find a way forward that both the British and Irish Governments can legislate for and that the parties in Northern Ireland can buy into.