Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Relatives of the 48 young people who lost their lives in the unimaginable horror of the Stardust fire will be picketing outside the gates of Leinster House later today. What response can the Government make to their plea? They made a comprehensive submission to the Government during the summer. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform eventually met relatives. We do not know the Government's response even though the matter has been raised here consistently by my colleague, Deputy Broughan. The last thing we want to do on this side is to raise hopes that cannot be met. Nonetheless, the submission suggests there is good reason to believe that further investigation is warranted. It comes down to a net point — was the fire arson or accident? Their submission believes, and there are expert witnesses to suggest the same thing, that the tribunal misdirected itself as to a crucial fact relating to the layout and design of the premises and that it worked from a map that did not show the correct layout of the storerooms and the combustible material. The Keane tribunal found that the forensic investigation of the site was inadequate.

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