Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The decision on how files are given out is a statutory function of nominated senior officials in the Department. I have no input whatsoever, nor have I ever been consulted on any file. It is a statutory position of senior civil servants and I think it is the same in every Department. As far as I know, such decisions must be undertaken at principal officer level or higher, as in my Department. I do not know what is in the files, although many issues in that period were examined. All the files were made fully available to Mr. Justice Barron so he had any information he required, even if it was not in the public domain. Mr. Justice Barron covered a number of issues. The Miami showband killings, which occurred in 1975, and a lot of other major incidents including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, have been examined by Mr. Justice Barron who had access to the full files. They were in his possession.

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