Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Obviously, issues around the Finucane and other cases are continually raised with the British Government. At a meeting just before the summer I raised these issues with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

There is no substantive discussion on collusion in the MacEntee report. It was the clear view of the Oireachtas committee that the issue of collusion could only be properly addressed by an appropriate inquiry in the UK. As regards a Dáil debate, I have always had serious concerns about a number of atrocities that happened in the State during the 1970s, including the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. That is why I asked the late Mr. Justice Hamilton in the first place and then Mr. Justice Barron to look at all of these incidents. As the House will be aware, the Oireachtas joint committee report which dealt with these issues made some stark findings and painted a very disturbing picture. As I said when I published the MacEntee report, I fully support the call for a debate in the Dáil and Seanad and I am happy to do that whenever the House agrees to do it.

In regard to the other issues raised by Deputy Ó Caoláin, in the context of all the reports including the MacEntee report about that period, as I said in my reply, findings in regard to shortcomings and omissions are a matter of serious concern. The situation has improved. We have asked the Garda to ensure these kinds of issues never happen again, where whole files and records went missing. Deputy Ó Caoláin has alluded to what I said many times before. I cannot and never will understand how a file on something like the Dublin-Monaghan bombings which happened in May 1974 was closed in August 1974. All I can do is ensure that the procedures in place now, and for some years, will never allow for the lack of records and recording of procedures to happen again and that any of the recommendations made by the late Mr. Justice Hamilton, Mr. Justice Barron or Mr. MacEntee are implemented. They throw considerable light on the circumstances of the time and are helpful to the families. They do not solve everything as we know, regrettably. I believe we have done a good service in the last number of years in all these reports which have really now come to a conclusion.

See this speech in context