Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the unimaginable horror that befell a working class community in north Dublin 26 years ago tonight. As I understand it, the families of the Stardust victims will hold a vigil outside the gates of Dáil Éireann tonight. This relates to their conviction that a number of legitimate questions remain unanswered about the tragedy that befell their community and about what happened on the night. I thank the Government for the fact that the exhumation sought by the relatives has happened, although it has taken a very long time.

Going back over the record of the House when my colleague, Deputy Broughan, raised this issue on so many occasions, I looked at what the Taoiseach said in 2001. The answers we have been getting since then are exactly the same as the Taoiseach told him in 2001. This time last year we raised this issue in the belief that the response from the Government would be different on that occasion. This followed on the preparation of a dossier by lawyers on behalf of the relatives of the victims and a television programme which was a particularly good example of public service broadcasting by "Prime Time" which looked at the destruction of 48 young lives that night, the subsequent tribunal which found that the forensic protection of the site was inadequate and at the danger the tribunal was misled as to the layout of the premises and, therefore, possibly misled as to the cause of the fire. The fact of whether the fire was arson or accident was fundamentally material. The first persons compensated were the owners of the premises concerned.

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