Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I welcome the news that the MacEntee investigation has been completed. I presume the Taoiseach would acknowledge that the more quickly the report is published, the better. It was this period that led to the recent controversy on the Dean Lyons report, while it was presumably circulating among people who featured in it or on whom it reflected adversely. Does the Taoiseach have a modus operandi in mind? Will he publish it through the Select Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights or how is it likely to be put into the public domain?

In respect of the Nuala O'Loan report into the murder of Raymond McCord junior and exposing the collusion that went on between the RUC special branch and certain loyalist paramilitaries, does the Taoiseach acknowledge that this case is the worst of all the cases we have experienced over 30 years? As he stated, we owe a great debt of gratitude to Raymond McCord senior who selflessly, and sometimes under physical threat, maintained his campaign to have these matters inquired into.

The Taoiseach stated that justice must be done and be seen to be done, and I ask him to state what he means by that. Given he recorded that he met the British Prime Minister and raised these matters with him, what was the character of the response he got from the British Prime Minister? Is the Taoiseach stating that he is satisfied that those responsible for these atrocities, and for collusion in the knowledge and permitting of them, are likely to be prosecuted? Would he agree that in the event that they are not prosecuted, most law abiding citizens on both parts of this island would be shocked? What are the real prospects of prosecutions? Has he any reason to believe, from his interaction with the British authorities, that there will be prosecutions for these atrocities?

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