Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

It strikes me, from what the Taoiseach has said - I am not being partisan about this - that he did not remind the British Prime Minister that this inquiry was a solemn commitment from the two governments. That is the flaw on how this case should be advanced. I know the Taoiseach is extremely busy, but I believe he should meet the Finucane family. The family was expecting to meet him and the Tánaiste, but that did not happen. This has been going on for 23 years and the Taoiseach, as leader of the Government, needs to make it a personal mission. I urge him to make a commitment here today that he will make it a personal commitment. The way to come at it tactically and strategically is that it is part of a solemn agreement made at Weston Park between two governments and that he expects the British Government to keep to that.

There is no point in the British Prime Minister phoning the Taoiseach an hour or two before he meets the family and saying he is sorry, but he has changed this and for the Taoiseach to say that goes against the Dáil and that there is all-party support for it. It was a solemn agreement between the Government here and the British Government. It was not up to the British Government to go off on a solo run. It should have been kept to the commitment it made.

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