Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the questions raised by a number of Deputies, I cannot judge on the basis of hearsay and anecdotal evidence or views but on the investigation of a very substantial team of gardaí involved in the case. I have to await their judgment and the outcome of their investigation of the matter. I have heard all the comments on the issue. There is no doubt that bringing a substantial number of people together and using various ways of cleaning the evidence required organisation. That is obvious but does not imply who was involved. The biggest issue is to ensure evidence can be given and some of it can stand up. In a democracy prosecutions must be based on evidence. If people have views — obviously there are strong views in this case — it is a matter for them to make statements to the Garda. A process is available to do this.

On Deputy Crawford's question on the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, we are pressing ahead to try to get the Unionist community to fully participate. I met the family of Eddie Fullerton. I got the Garda at top level to engage with the family in the investigations to try to help move the case on. The family made its case to me, as many of these families have done. A large number of family members attended and gave me all the evidence they had, some of which was known to the Garda and some which they felt was new. I communicated all of that information through my senior officials to the Garda. To the best of my knowledge, the Garda has continued to work on the case. I will ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to follow up with the Garda as to the current position.

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