Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

I dtús báire, ba mhaith liom tacaíocht a thabhairt do na clanna agus gaolta atá ag lorg córais ceart sa Teach seo.

In 2006 the Final Report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk by the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, 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.

In this and other reports commissioned by the Oireachtas the reality of collusion between British Crown forces and Unionist paramilitaries is highlighted.

For years when nationalists and republicans pointed out that such collusion was not only taking place but was commonplace, it was dismissed as propaganda. It took long years of campaigning, mainly by the survivors and the bereaved of these acts of collusion, for the truth to begin to be exposed.

The reason my party has tabled this motion on the day of the 37th anniversary of the bombings in this city and in Monaghan is because many of the issues related to that event remain unresolved.

The Dublin victims were ordinary working class people, mostly from the northside of the city, which I am proud to represent. They were effectively forgotten about by the powers that be over many years. In a similar manner, the victims of the Stardust tragedy, also on the northside of this city, were disgracefully neglected. I could not stand here as a Finglas man and not mention my friend Martin Doherty who gave his life to stop a loyalist bomb in the Widow Scanlon's pub crowded with more than 300 people 17 years ago next week. His family also await justice.

Through the long years of campaigning not only were the families affected by acts of collusion and their supporters ignored by the political establishment, but they were often made to feel that they were considered by certain elements of the State to be what used to be known as subversives. Thankfully, those days are behind us but there are still many questions that remain to be answered and avenues of investigation that still need to be pursued.

The Barron and MacEntee reports did not bring closure. They strongly indicate that there has still not been full disclosure on the part of either the Irish or the British states of all the intelligence pertaining to the bombings and the subsequent investigation, or, more accurately, lack of investigation.

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