Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Questions were submitted to him and to his legal officer. Surely if the State sponsors the witness protection programme, it can lay down conditions that the legal adviser to the witness should be able to vet the answers that were given. Surely some contact should have been made with this person, who is central to the issue of the vehicles and the allegations made to the police ombudsman.

I differ from the Minister in asserting that these allegations were given far more credence in Northern Ireland than they have been here. I will not say in the House that any member of the Garda would willingly or knowingly involve himself in any way in allegations to which the Minister has referred in his contribution, namely, that a Garda officer of senior rank would knowingly allow a vehicle to proceed if there was a question of the potential placing of a bomb in Omagh or anywhere else which would result in damage to life and limb. However, there are differences of opinion arising from the allegations about this.

If we want to move forward, the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister should instigate a Cory-style investigation and report on the Nally investigation, which could result in recommendations to both Governments about how best to proceed. Criminal proceedings and investigations are ongoing, but the Minister is aware that the Nally report contains serious contradictions in the way evidence is viewed. The cost of a Cory-style investigation would not be high compared to those of other public inquiries, but it would provide a focus. A person of international significance would be in a position, through a legal adviser, to have evidence and responses made available from the so-called informant.

The Omagh families need a version of the Nally report. They are entitled to know everything they can about the thinking and circumstances that caused their family members to be murdered. They need the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to give them the time and the respect they deserve. The Minister has confirmed this and I hope the Taoiseach will do the same. Just as there must be justice for the forgotten, there must equally be justice for these people — the ignored. Will they too wait 30 years to hear the truth? That is a life sentence.

I am not alone in thinking that the Government's treatment of these people is a national disgrace. To make some small redress and to restore some national dignity in the matter I will read the names of the men, women and children who died in the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles, the Omagh bombing of 15 August 1998: Olive Hawkes, Jolene Marlow, Debra Cartwright, Mary Grimes, her daughter Avril Monaghan, Avril's unborn twins and her baby daughter Maria Monaghan, Sean McLoughlin, James Barker, Oran Doherty, Geraldine Breslin, Brenda Logue, Philomena Skelton, Gareth Conway, baby Breda Devine, Lorrayne Wilson, Samantha McFarland, Julia Hughes, Elizabeth Rush, Rocio Abad Ramos, Fernando Blasco Baselga, Esther Gibson, Anne McCombe, Vide Short, Adrian Gallagher, Alan Radford, Fred White, his son Brian White, Brian McCrory and Seán McGrath. At the funeral of Philomena Skelton, the bishop said:

What happened in Market Street was something that was palpable evil — to plant a bomb in a crowded street was a sinful act, that nothing can condone, excuse or allow to be talked away. But if the sense of evil was palpable, even more palpable was the outpouring of love and caring. What we will remember most is the way in which people from all walks of life responded to this human tragedy.

Five and a half years on, the Irish Government might join them.

The Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should meet the families and explain the process involved, in so far as they can. Furthermore, I expect the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, with their counterparts in the British Government, to point a way forward by holding a Cory-style investigation which could provide recommendations as to how best the families can be helped in their quest for truth and justice. Otherwise, a future Member of this House will, in perhaps 20 years' time and just as current Members have done with regard to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, demand of the Government then in office that an investigation be held into the Omagh bombing.

The perpetrators of this crime are still alive and free. When one talks to members of the victims' families, whose loved ones were blown through shop shutters or killed instantly by flying shrapnel, one begins to understand the humanitarian responsibility the Government has in this matter. I respect the work of the Garda Síochána and the danger in which its members and members of the PSNI put themselves when dealing with terrorism and terrorist activity. This report, however, is just the beginning. There are serious unanswered questions and I have given my view on how we should proceed. I hope the Government will respond accordingly.

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