Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I wish to express my party's appreciation to Mr. Justice Barron for the effort put into this important investigation. Has the Taoiseach formed any view about any further inquiry or the shape of a further inquiry? In respect of the verbal commitments given by the British Government, expressly so by Mr. Paul Murphy, does the Taoiseach consider that the order of co-operation by the British Government might be different with a different kind of inquiry? Whatever Mr. Justice Barron says today, we know what he says in his report. He states that the value of the co-operation of the British authorities was diminished by their reluctance to hand over original documents and that as a result, the scope of his report is limited. Does the Taoiseach think that any other form of inquiry would be likely to bring primary material from the British authorities into the public domain or to the benefit of such an inquiry? Given that this was the greatest act of mass murder in the history of the State, is it not extraordinary that the files have gone missing in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform?

Whereas this House quite correctly points the finger at the British for not being as forthcoming as it might be, is it not extraordinary that our Administration can only put its hands up and say that the files are missing and the Taoiseach says he cannot say or do anything further? I accept that the Taoiseach is not responsible but it is extraordinary.

Does the Taoiseach propose to institute any inquiry into why the documents are missing from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform? Some Garda documents are also missing. Regarding the documents in the Department in particular, will there be a Garda inquiry into the reason those documents are missing, to ascertain when exactly they went missing and what additional information is available about their disappearance?

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