Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy has raised a number of points. I agree with him that the reports are excellent. We have had four comprehensive reports ranging from the early work of the late Mr. Justice Liam Hamilton to the work in recent years which has been painstakingly carried out, and has involved huge detail, by Mr. Justice Barron. Mr. Justice Barron who has worked within offices of my Department for many years worked diligently and put in a huge effort on this work. He has co-ordinated his work in so far as it has been possible for us to open up various contacts with the British, to Downing Street, the Secretary of State and the NIO, and to others in the security force to receive assistance. If Mr. Justice Barron was here he would say that at best that has been patchy.

For that reason we have continued on his work and recommendations on a number of fronts. We established the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings in 1974 under Mr. Patrick MacEntee. Following much effort and work, we have opened up new information for him with the security forces, which he has diligently followed during the past 18 months or so. As I mentioned previously, there are legal aspects about what he can and cannot do, but that matter is under discussion. He has now completed his investigative and preparatory work and will report on it.

Some issues in the second and third reports are being examined. The Oireachtas joint committee recommends that the Government consider extending the terms of reference of the order establishing the commission of investigation to include some of these issues. On completion of Mr. MacEntee's final report we intend to return to those issues. As I said previously, Mr. MacEntee has made it clear he does not want to engage in that exercise. If we follow that through for the 1972 and 1973 bombings, we will have to get another person to work on it. In regard to the recommendations made in the report on the murder of Seamus Ludlow, some of these are similar to recommendations in a previous report. We would be in a better position to review and address all these recommendations when the current commission of investigation has completed its work. Specific recommendations from the Ludlow report have already been acted on and, with regard to the point made by Deputy Rabbitte on following up cases, the Garda has established a unit to work on some of the historical cases. It has used all the mechanisms available to it to liaise with the PSNI in respect of the investigation into the murder of Seamus Ludlow.

The Garda Commissioner has appointed a dedicated team of gardaí to re-examine the case in a proactive manner and to determine whether there is any possibility of bringing any or all of the four suspects to justice. In that particular case, it is clear that Mr. Justice Barron has pinpointed who he believes were responsible for the murder. I have been advised by the Garda authorities that, as recommended by the Oireachtas joint committee, the reinvestigation of the murder of Seamus Ludlow is at an advanced stage and is under the direction of a Garda superintendent. Liaison will be established and maintained with the historical inquiries team in Northern Ireland and the family has been kept fully informed of the investigations. Officials of my Department have also been following up cases and met representatives of the Miami Showband families and Justice for the Forgotten. I have also met a number of these groups.

These reports should be debated in the House. The appropriate time to do that, subject to the Oireachtas committee's opinion, is probably when it completes its work on the fourth report. I understand it will then put together its conclusions in respect of the four reports. That would be an appropriate time, although we could debate it at an earlier stage if that is considered necessary.

Mr. Justice Barron has highlighted and brought to a detailed position what went on during those times in respect of all the cases he investigated. He has brought to light as much evidence as he was able to collect from all the records available in official and Garda files, as well as from other files he acquired both inside and outside the State. While it perhaps does not solve everything, we are in a much better position now than we were when we set about this task several years ago.

A number of other cases were also examined but it would take me a long time to mention them all. In approximately 20 cases, we now have significant details regarding evidence which we previously did not have. It is just a historical question at this stage because of the circumstances of the time and the nature of the Garda investigations of these cases. I have discussed this at length with the families and, while they always ask me to explain it, there is not much point trying to explain more than 30 years later.

The reality, which some of the families can never understand, is that three months after the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, which represented the biggest single atrocity of the Troubles until the Omagh atrocity in 1998, the official files closed. There is no point making criticisms or going on about it because that is what happened and I have faithfully, in countless meetings with the relatives, explained the position. They were different times, with different circumstances and difficulties. The families do not understand that and believe it was because of collusion and a cover-up. I think it was just the way it was in those days. Although 30 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, the entire investigation ceased after three months. However, that is what happened.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and I have spent long hours trying to explain this to the families. They interpret the matter differently. I do not think there was any malice on our part; it just reflected the circumstances of the time. All we can do now is investigate the cases as completely as possible.

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