Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

It is unusual that the first week's business in the Dáil in 2008, apart from Private Members' business, is devoted exclusively to statements. There is no more important issue than the one before us today, which must be comprehensively addressed by our Parliament.

A Dáil debate on the recommendations of the reports on the joint committee into the four reports on Judge Barron's inquiry into the violent incidents arising from the conflict in Northern Ireland would be valuable. A Dáil debate on the fourth and final report finding of collusion between the security forces and paramilitaries in carrying out these violent incidents would be even more valuable. However, statements, and only statements, are the worst possible way of addressing the life and death issues involved. Statements are a pretence of dealing seriously with an issue when in reality this method ensures the discussion takes place in a vacuum and that there is no proposal or motion for action emanating from the two days' discussion.

Like every Deputy in Dáil Eireann, I received an e-mail from Margaret Urwin of Justice for the Forgotten a week ago alerting me to the "important upcoming Dáil Debate on collusion. The debate having been promised for over a year is finally happening and the motion which has yet to be decided will be moved by the Taoiseach in the Dáil at 5.00 p.m. The significance of the debate is underlined by the fact that it will be observed by members of the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the past, in addition to many of the victims of collusion in this jurisdiction". I wish to acknowledge the presence of the members of the Justice for the Forgotten and the Consultative Group on the Past from Northern Ireland. As Justice for the Forgotten knows by now, its expectations are unfulfilled and no motion and no debate on collusion has been tabled. There is no debate at all — instead we have statements.

As a result, I prepared a comprehensive motion, summarising the recommendations of the various reports and offering a way forward. The Taoiseach has left the Chamber but I intend to send this to him after the debate. Perhaps the Minister of State will bring it to his attention and he will reflect on it overnight, before the debate continues tomorrow, and accept or amend it. It would be a shame if we have a debate over two days without concrete proposals for action emerging at the end.

I was Labour Party spokesperson for justice and a member of the Oireachtas Joint justice sub-committee that conducted the public hearings and compiled three of the four reports on Judge Barron's investigations into the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974, the murder of Seamus Ludlow in 1976 and the bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk. The testimony and witness of the surviving victims and relatives was the most poignant and compelling part of our deliberations. Few members of the sub-committee were left unmoved by the experience. The sense of loss and pain for their loved ones which they experienced 30 years and more after the tragic events was compounded by the insensitive way that many of them were treated by the agents and agencies of the State and by the failure of the State to vindicate their rights as citizens under the Constitution. It seemed the State wished to wipe away the entire series of atrocities as though they had never happened. Only the courageous campaign of Justice for the Forgotten and the turn of events in Northern Ireland eventually shamed the State into activity.

On 10 April 1998, the historic Good Friday Agreement was reached. It recognised the suffering of the victims of violence must be acknowledged and addressed as an essential element of reconciliation. The agreement recognised services would have to be provided to support the needs of victims. Support would also need to be channelled through both statutory and community-based organisations requiring the allocation of sufficient resources, including statutory funding to meet the needs of the victims.

A victims commission was established under the former Tánaiste, Mr. John Wilson, which reported in July 1999. The Ceann Comhairle, then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, was instrumental in establishing that initiative. Mr. Wilson's recommendations were wide-ranging and humane and dealt in detail with the needs for support and long-term care of traumatised and damaged victims, as well as compensation for the families of those killed and the costs arising from the injuries sustained. He recommended a victim's pension be established for certain categories of victims. Few of his detailed recommendations, however, have been implemented in full.

He also recommended the appointment of a retired Supreme Court judge to conduct an independent inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and into the murder of Seamus Ludlow. Mr. Justice Henry Barron was appointed by the Oireachtas and carried out four substantial investigations into the violent incidents which occurred in the Republic in the 1970s.

The sub-committees, established by motions of the Dáil and Seanad to consider each of Mr. Justice Barron's reports, had a positive and challenging remit. They sought in particular to deliver comprehensive recommendations in their first and final reports. Of the three tasks the sub-committee was charged with in relation to Mr. Justice Barron's first report into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, two were directed towards future actions. The first concerned the lessons to be drawn and any actions to be taken in the light of the report, its findings and conclusions. The second was whether, having regard to the report's findings and following consultations with the inquiry, a further public inquiry into any aspect of the report would be required or fruitful.

In its first set of recommendations, the sub-committee considered a full public inquiry under the Tribunal of Inquiries Act 1921 would have represented the preferred form of inquiry. However, because the perpetrators, information and witnesses were outside the jurisdiction, legal and procedural difficulties would arise from an inquiry initiated in this jurisdiction.

The sub-committee recommended a series of steps to achieve a similar result by a different route. A precedent existed for this approach which drew on the agreement of the British and Irish Governments to appoint Mr. Peter Cory, a Canadian judge, to conduct a thorough investigation of allegations of collusion by the security forces in six specific cases to which the two sovereign Governments committed themselves following discussion with the Northern Ireland parties at Weston Park in 2001. These were the murders of Pat Finucane, Robert Hamill, Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright, Lord Justice and Lady Gibson, chief superintendent Harry Breen and superintendent Bob Buchanan.

The independent judge would have the same powers the two sovereign Governments conferred on Judge Cory. The judge would have the power to direct witnesses for interview and the power to compel the delivery of documentation in both jurisdictions. In the event that a public inquiry was recommended, the relevant Government would implement that recommendation.

The sub-committee built in a safeguard. It stated:

In the event of the tried and tested Weston Park procedure failing as a consequence of a lack of co-operation from the Government or authorities in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, the sub-committee recommends the Irish Government should consider instituting proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, pursuant to the European Convention on Human Rights seeking appropriate declaratory relief against the United Kingdom requiring it to put in place an appropriate investigation.

To copperfasten the procedures, the sub-committee proposed its recommendations be endorsed by the Dáil and Seanad and by the United Kingdom Parliament.

Unfortunately, no recommendations were implemented. I have raised them on numerous occasions in the Dáil in the intervening years. To be fair, the Taoiseach has taken up the issues from time to time with the former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, but was rebuffed and no further action was taken.

The initial important step that could so easily have been taken, namely, the formal adoption of the four reports and their findings by the Dáil and Seanad, never took place nor were the reports ever forwarded to the British House of Commons.

In its fourth and final report in 2007, the sub-committee made its most damning finding. It stated:

The sub-committee is left in no doubt that collusion between the British security forces and terrorists was behind many if not all of the atrocities that are considered in this report. We are horrified that persons who were employed by the British Administration to preserve peace and to protect people were engaged in the creation of violence and the butchering of innocent victims. The sub-committee is of the view that given that we are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces, the British Government cannot legitimately refuse to co-operate with investigations and attempts to get to the truth.

These trenchant findings on collusion were made in the light of the accumulation of evidence over the four Barron reports and hearings conducted by the sub-committee.

The sub-committee concluded that "the seriousness of this, i.e., collusion, warrants direction from the Oireachtas and we, therefore, recommend that there should be a full debate in both the Dáil and Seanad on the issue of collusion since it is necessary for there to be greater political impetus to highlight the fact that it occurred and the facts of its scale and to identify measures to bring closure to the victims". The sub-committee proposed the Oireachtas give direction on the way forward to achieve the necessary action concerning collusion.

While the Taoiseach responded positively in subsequent remarks, I propose four courses of action. First, the interim and final reports of the sub-committee of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on the report of the independent commission of inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings should be received, endorsed and approved by the Dáil and Seanad.

Second, the Ceann Comhairle should be called upon to formally inform the Speaker of the House of Commons of the UK of the passage of the resolution and to send copies of the relevant reports and other documents, with a request that the matter be considered by the members of that House.

Third, the Taoiseach should be called upon to renew his efforts to secure the agreement of the British Government to the courses of action recommended by the sub-committee, to report to the Dáil on a regular basis. If he has no progress of substance to report by the end of this year, he should report on the steps taken for the initiation of proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Fourth, the Oireachtas should request the Ceann Comhairle to call upon the British Government, as an initial step and as a sign of good faith in dealing with the legacy of the conflict, to provide access to all the original documents relating to the atrocities that occurred in this jurisdiction, in particular the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of 1974 which killed 32 Irish citizens, a French citizen and an Italian citizen.

Only when these avenues are explored can the victims and families obtain justice and closure on these terrible events.

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