Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

This is an important debate and I am glad to be able to contribute to it. It is important for so many families which have suffered so much for so many decades. It is also important for Irish society. I hope the British Government will take proper and immediate account of the contents of this motion, which has the full support of the Oireachtas.

In July 2008 we had the opportunity in this House to agree a motion that was forwarded to the British House of Commons. That motion followed the interim and final reports of a sub-committee of the Oireachtas joint committee on justice. The work of that sub-committee concerned itself with the report of the independent commission of inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the three related Barron reports. This debate concerns atrocities which were perpetrated on innocent people. The bombings in Monaghan and Dublin caused the greatest loss of life in a single day during that period known to all of us as the Troubles. The least all of us can do is to remember those who lost their lives and others who have suffered so much through injury and the loss of loved ones. These people have vigorously sought the truth surrounding those tragedies.

Families must know the truth about what happened and that is the reason it is essential for progress to be made on the request made by this House in July 2008 as referred to by my colleague. I realise that the pain of many families will not be eased in any way without the finalisation of all appropriate reports and investigations and the administration of justice. Unanswered questions continue to contribute to that pain.

The Oireachtas sub-committee, under the chairmanship of former Deputy Seán Ardagh - and on which Deputies Ó Feargháil and Finian McGrath were very active - did excellent work. I recall listening to those debates and remember in particular the testimonies made to the sub-committee by many family members. In a previous Dáil debate on the sub-committee's report, I stated that it was very regrettable and unacceptable that those awful tragedies of 1974 were not comprehensively investigated at a much earlier time. In 1998, the then victim's commissioner, the late Tánaiste Mr. John Wilson, recommended that an inquiry be undertaken into those tragedies. Those victims and their families had every reason to believe that the State abandoned them for many years and they have endured such pain and loss.

Subsequently the inquiry process commenced and the former Chief Justice, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Justice Barron carried out detailed and thorough work. I commend the work of the Justice for the Forgotten group, as its efforts over many years have been painstaking and deserve great credit.

Mr. Justice Barron compiled a comprehensive report and it is obvious to all that not minimum but maximum co-operation from the British authorities is required to ensure the truth is achieved. One telling comment from Mr. Justice Barron is:

Correspondence with the Northern Ireland office undoubtedly produced some useful information but its value was reduced by the reluctance to make original documents available and the refusal to supply other information on security grounds. While the inquiry fully understands the position taken by the British Government on these matters, it must be said that the scope of this report is limited as a result.

Such comments from Mr. Justice Barron clearly demonstrate that the necessary co-operation was not forthcoming from the British authorities. I refer again to the work of the sub-committee; listening to people who gave evidence before that sub-committee repeatedly brought home to us the terrible pain and suffering inflicted upon so many and the absolute futility of violence.

The essential aim of any inquiry must be to find the truth. I requested the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to include the Belturbet bombing of December 1972 in the Barron report. Two young people were killed in Belturbet on that fateful night but, unfortunately, nobody has ever been brought to justice for those terrible murders. The Belturbet bombing needs to be fully investigated and access provided to all relevant papers. The O'Reilly and Stanley families continue to suffer the injustice of losing loved ones at a young age. I have known the O'Reilly family from Belturbet for many years and became acquainted with Joe Stanley and his family from Clara, County Offaly, more recently. From speaking to Mr. Stanley on Talbot Street today, it is clear that the least these people deserve is a full investigation into these atrocious crimes.

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