Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister, Deputy Ahern, made those points again last week at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. The terms have not changed since 17 November. We are still making the same points.

On the second question, everyone felt that the best way to deal with the issue was to get a Cory-type investigation, an investigation that emanated from the Weston Park talks. It was felt that kind of investigation, based in Northern Ireland, would be the best way to deal with the issue from the point of view of being able to get witnesses, papers and so on. As the Deputy said, the British do not feel the same on that matter. We said that we would set up a committee of investigation to deal with the issues within our domain. As I said in my reply, that matter must come before the House formally. Work on the membership and chairmanship of the committee is well advanced and the matter will come before the House in due course.

If we do not make progress with the British Government and if it does not move on these issues, which appears likely — we have not given up yet — we must decide on whether to go to the European Court of Justice. We have not considered that option, but we will do so if we cannot get the type of investigation we want.

The Deputy's last question referred to extending the terms of the commission of inquiry to cover the Littlejohn and other cases. That issue is being examined. The original joint Oireachtas committee which examined the Barron report on the 1974 bombings recommended the establishment of a commission of inquiry, to which we agreed. It asked us to examine the issues in this jurisdiction, including the specific aspects of the Garda investigation at the time, the reason the investigation wound up so quickly and the Garda did not follow up on specific leads, and information relating to the movements of the white van, a man who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel and the alleged sighting in Dublin of a British army corporal. These will all be investigated by the commission. The issue of the missing documentation, which has been raised by Deputy Costello, will also form part of the investigation. Documentation that is unaccounted for, explanations for the missing documentation, where the missing documentation has been located and if the systems currently in place are adequate to prevent a recurrence will all be investigated. We have agreed with this recommendation and arrangements are being made.

We are also looking at including in that, although we have not finally decided, the issue of the missing Clones files, the details of the Crinnion, Wyman and Littlejohn brothers case and the question of whether forensic evidence was properly followed up. It seems sensible to me but we have not formally made a decision that they should all be in the one committee of investigation because they are all outstanding issues from the report. That is the updated position.

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