Ms Margaret Urwin:

Regarding the motions passed by Dáil Éireann in 2008, 2011 and 2016, the Boucher team has told us that it is getting complete co-operation concerning the cases included in Operation Denton from all those entities that have such information - the PSNI, the Ministry of Defence in London, MI5, etc. - which is very positive. If that happens, the motions might be a bit redundant in respect of those cases. Of course however, as the Deputy correctly said, the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973 and the Belturbet bombing are not included in Operation Denton. Therefore, from the perspective of those cases, the motions are still valid.

As I already mentioned, I was in constant contact with the Garda superintendent in Monaghan about the Belturbet case in the aftermath of the showing of the documentary. I am also in constant contact with Ed Burke in Nottingham University who has been very helpful in looking at this case and other cases. As I said, we seem to have reached a hiatus regarding Belturbet. I think it has been passed upstairs now and I do not know what is happening. I have not had any contact in many weeks. I will have to follow up on that again.

Regarding the Dublin-Monaghan civil case, the general idea of a civil case is to get compensation, but that is not why our families are taking the case. Mainly, they are taking it to try to get more information. Believe it or not, this civil case has been going on since 2014 and a decision has still not been made regarding its admissibility. As I said, it is coming up again and we are trying to get the other side's case struck out because it has not responded to our statement of claim which was submitted about 14 or 15 months ago. The Crown Solicitor’s Office has not responded, so we are trying to get permission to proceed with this case and to have it fully heard in the new year, hopefully. We will not know about that for a while yet I presume.