Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

My answer relates to the British side, which was the first aspect of the Deputy's question. I do not think the position will change in that regard. Having watched the British dealing with a number of other inquiries and being familiar with the way the system works there, I do not think that there will be a change. I do not think we could appoint someone in a higher position to do the job — for example appointing a Supreme Court judge would have no effect. Mr. Justice Hamilton was once the Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Barron is a highly distinguished member of the Bench. I do not foresee a change, but I would like to wait until the final report has been produced.

The files of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda Síochána, to which Deputy Rabbitte referred, have been examined. The previous Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, answered questions on the matter in the House. He explained when examinations and investigations took place and outlined how the files could have gone missing. Additional searches were done. As the House is aware from its experience over the years, people discover files in the archives which may turn up a year late under the 30-year rule, for example. I asked for more searches some years ago and the Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, ordered that this should happen. I have not read the report of the investigations of that time. A large number of files and records vanished. I am not sure whether they would have been helpful, but it certainly would have been better if they had been available. They vanished out of the system and that has been reported on. Investigations were conducted by the Garda Commissioner at the time. The reports are on the record. I can look them up again and bring them to the attention of the House. Some years have passed since that happened and they are not annexed in the report. They are not in the system. They certainly would have been useful.

As Deputy Rabbitte said, and I have said many times, this was an enormous atrocity. It was the biggest single atrocity in more than 30 years of the Troubles. The report that will be laid before the House might ask us to examine other aspects of the matter. We should wait to see what advice we are given in that regard. Based on the information I received after the archives were searched, I do not think that the files will come up. I do not know what happened to them.

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