Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I am delighted the Minister gave an undertaking on 23 February that he would take another look at the file, that he asked a senior officer to do so and that the matter is being pursued. My interest in this issue goes back 12 years, when one of the two survivors, Mr. Fitzpatrick, asked me to launch his memoir and I also met Mr. Kenny at that meeting. I put down a number of questions over the years to successive Ministers for Defence, especially to the current Minister's predecessor, Deputy Michael Smith, but my questions were stonewalled all the way. The recently published book, edited by David O'Donoghue, has brought up other issues and it appears that the Army records are quite inaccurate.

The two survivors are the only members of those events who have not been honoured. They have a long-standing grievance about the way they have been treated. They feel the authorities have neglected to give them proper credit and that they need to be dead to be honoured, which is quite wrong. It is almost half a century since these events took place, under the first UN-mandated service abroad for Irish troops. All of the people involved in the ambush should be properly honoured and they should be honoured equally. I am glad the Minister's senior officer will be meeting the survivors, but the Minister should also meet them. They were part of our first service in the Congo and they served on behalf of this country. Will the Minister meet them and give them the honour to which they are entitled?

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