Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

On behalf of the Labour Party I welcome this all-party motion. I join with other speakers in welcoming members of the Finucane family who are in the Visitors Gallery. It is important that all parties are joining in support of the family in their long campaign for an independent, open, public inquiry. I emphasise the importance of the words, independent, open and public. The case for such an inquiry hardly needs to be restated. Suffice it to say that the agreement at Weston Park in 2001 between the British and Irish Governments and political parties in Northern Ireland, the recommendations of Judge Peter Cory in 2003, the raising of the matter at the United Nations General Assembly and the repeated calls of human rights groups, have together made the need for as open an inquiry as possible absolutely compelling.

It is unfortunate that the ongoing demeanour of the British Government suggests that the Finucane family will not be given the open inquiry they deserve. As recently as this February the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, repeated his government's intention to hold the inquiry under the new Inquiries Act which is a serious mitigation of the human rights guarantees of the previous legislation upon which the inquiry was recommended to have been held.

This legislation completely waters down the type of open inquiry the Finucane family deserves. It would see vital evidence and testimony blocked and prevented from being made public in the interests of what is termed national security. One can only conclude that the British want to indulge in a major cover-up in order to prevent the true nature of the collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the loyalist paramilitaries who murdered Pat Finucane ever being made public. It suggests that a strategic decision has been taken by Downing Street to withhold the truth about the circumstances surrounding Pat Finucane's murder and the consequences of the murder of the human rights defender are not lost on any of us.

Today in London, the Taoiseach has had an ideal opportunity to press the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on the case for a full public independent inquiry. I suspect the Taoiseach may not have done so but I hope he has. In the recent past he has merely expressed his belief that the British Government will not back down. I suggest we must get beyond this attitude. I do not understand how the British Government can commit to a public inquiry in Weston Park in 2001 and yet fail to deliver for the Finucane family when the time comes to establish the investigation promised. It is a necessary function of our Government to ensure that its British counterparts comply with their commitments under an international agreement between both states.

I refer to the British Government's behaviour since Weston Park regarding this inquiry. Initially the British delayed Judge Cory's investigation and the placing in the public domain of their input to his reports. This was followed by an effective order of the High Court in Belfast that British authorities set a date for publication of outstanding chapters of the Cory report dealing with the Finucane murder. This led to an extraordinary situation whereby a judge of international standing felt compelled to go public and speak of his frustration regarding inaction on his report. It led to the unlikely alliance of the families of Pat Finucane and Billy Wright applying to the High Court in Belfast to quash the British Government's delay in publishing Judge Cory's findings. The British Government subsequently reneged on its commitment for a full public inquiry and insisted on dealing with it under the new inquiries legislation referred to by previous speakers.

The case for a public inquiry has been established at European level with the Court of Human Rights ruling that the British Government had failed adequately to investigate the collusion allegations surrounding the murder. When the court made this ruling it certainly did not have in mind the type of government-appointed, controlled and spancelled inquiry that would conduct most of its work in private that the British are offering. As Judge Peter Cory said in his report in 2003, without public scrutiny, doubts based solely on myth and suspicion will linger long, fester and spread their malignant infection throughout the Republic and the Northern Ireland community.

I welcome the fact this House is uniting to make the case on behalf of the Finucane family. I welcome the fact that together we are joining with Judge Cory, republican and Nationalist parties in the North, senior members of the British Judiciary, international human rights groups, the Bush Administration and senior American politicians, in calling for a proper inquiry. The British Government must rethink its position and live up to the commitments it made at Weston Park.

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