Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

To repeat again, the McEntee commission reported on 11 January that various groups were prepared to communicate with it and assist it with information the commission believes they have. Mr. McEntee has assiduously followed up these issues. He believes it is worth engaging to try to obtain that information. The commission is following a definite line.

Regarding the issues relating to the Garda and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the commission heard evidence from a significant number of persons within the jurisdiction. These persons also disclosed a variety of relevant documentation and information. In a number of instances, portions of the disclosed documentation contained sensitive information that would be privileged from disclosure in ordinary court proceedings. Where this situation arose, the commission generally succeeded in obtaining access to such documentation for the purpose of inspection and for the use of the investigation of all of the relevant portions of that information and documentation, taking into account its sensitivity. We can take from that and from the report I am publishing today that Mr. McEntee has been able to obtain that data and information. He now seeks an extension to follow the remaining parts of the work.

As for the European Court, the Attorney General has followed up that issue. As happened with the families, the courts considered the matter to be out of time. The Attorney General's view is that while we should not give up pressurising and campaigning on this issue, given that 30 years have passed, taking a similar case in similar circumstances would not yield much.

In reply to Deputy Sargent's question at the outset, we are now awaiting the final part of the report from Mr. Justice Barron, which will be available shortly. It deals with the bombs in Castleblayney, Dundalk and Dublin Airport as well as with the Silverbridge and Miami Showband attacks and will bring an end to the comprehensive examination of all the issues under investigation between late 1970 and 1976. It will be a comprehensive report on all aspects, in so far as all available documentation from within the State and all on which we were able to get our hands from outside the State are concerned. Some aspects, such as the Seamus Ludlow case are now before the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights Sub-committee on the Barron Report while others have been dealt with by the sub-committee. The value of the process in which we have been engaged for the past few years is that we have put together the first comprehensive investigation of these matters. In the case of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, this has been done for the first time in 35 years. As I have stated repeatedly, we must always remember that one of the tragedies in this respect was that the Garda investigation of the Dublin and Monaghan bombing of May 1974 closed in August 1974. Hence, this is the first time we have had an entirely comprehensive examination of everything on which we could possibly physically put our hands.

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