Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Merely because the Taoiseach dealt in good faith with the political heads in Downing Street and Stormont does not mean there is no cause for concern about some of the matters that have been raised here. The Taoiseach has told us that a different order of inquiry would, in his opinion, be unlikely to elicit a greater extent of co-operation from the British authorities. Does the Taoiseach believe that an international inquiry might be feasible? If there were an international dimension to this, would it be more likely to require the British authorities to co-operate with it?

While I did not see reports of this in the press, colleagues have told me that the then head of Anglo-Irish affairs, Mr. Sean Donlon, replied to a newspaper advertisement and gave evidence to the committee. He specifically said that he had not been interviewed in respect of the Barron report. Does the Taoiseach consider that people might have reasonably expected that someone like him would have been interviewed?

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