Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

What credibility does the Taoiseach give to the British Prime Minister's assurance of co-operation with an Oireachtas committee when he signally failed to ensure his Government and its agencies co-operated fully with the Barron inquiry? The Taoiseach is glossing over the level of co-operation he received. Is he aware that Mr. Justice Barron pointed out that, of 68,000 files of possible relevance in the Northern Ireland Office, not a single copy of an original document was made available to the inquiry? The sum total received, in essence, was a ten page letter, and Mr. Justice Barron said specifically that the scope of his report was limited as a result. Will the Taoiseach address that?

Does the Taoiseach agree that the British Prime Minister has treated the inquiry and the Taoiseach with contempt because he has failed to ensure this co-operation was given? Did he perhaps think that, because the Taoiseach believed his claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which we now know to be a lie, he would believe anything else the Prime Minister said?

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