Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I am not aware of what happened at a meeting of a committee of the Houses today. As the Deputy is aware from the inquiry and the reports of it by Mr. Justice Barron, it is clear throughout them that there is an identified location where activities were going on and that was highlighted a number of times. Mr. Justice Barron definitely wrote a considerable amount about that in his first report. It is a serious matter.

As the Deputy is aware, I have raised previously that after the Dublin and Monaghan bombings not a great deal of activity seems to have happened around that issue for whatever reason. It is through the work we had done here, the groups I got together and through the work of the late Mr. Justice Hamilton and Mr. Justice Barron that much of this information was uncovered. The Garda investigations into these matters closed in August 1974, which I have always said was extraordinary. It would be more extraordinary if the Deputy told me today that a senior Garda who was on duty at that time would have known that and that the inquiry was still closed in August 1974.

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