Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Martin raised a question which I did not answer earlier. The only facility to arrange this is not for the House but is between the governments, and that obviously means at the level of Taoiseach and British Prime Minister. When the Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, called me about his decision to appoint Desmond de Silva QC to review the papers in regard to the Finucane case, which run to over 1 million, I pointed out to him that the House had adopted a very clear all-party motion on this and that we would continue to press for the public inquiry recommended by Judge Peter Cory. The Prime Minister said the government did not wish to go down the road of having an interminable line of public inquiries. I reminded him that this was part of the overall agreement at Weston Park, arising from the recommendations of Judge Cory, which was followed through here with the Smithwick tribunal. That is why on each occasion I have the opportunity to meet with the British Prime Minister I will raise this, arising from the all-party approval given in the House, and because it is necessary to do so at government level.

I understand the sensitivities of this and how it can upset people but the question that was raised with me following my meeting with the Northern Ireland Ministers, Danny Kennedy, MLA, and Arlene Foster, MLA, was an assumption that there was State collusion here with killers, who could go to Northern Ireland, do their bloody and foul deeds and return to safe havens. I was very clear in my response to that. While I fully understand the sensitivity and the sorrow of every family who lost a member through those bad times, I reiterate that the IRA was the enemy of this State and people in our Defence Forces, the Garda, the Army and civilians, ordinary citizens, lost their lives because of those kinds of activities. In expressing that sorrow for every victim, I ask if we would not be in a different place if we did not have over 3,000 deaths.

The point I raised again directly was that in the Finucane case there was a recommendation that there be a public inquiry by Judge Cory and that we had followed through in dealing with our end of it. Nobody expects that we will have 190 public inquiries and when Minister Bell gave me the list and told me he would like me to talk to some of the people from his locality who had been deprived of family members through this kind of activity, he was very strong on that. I want to be equally clear here that the IRA and its personnel were the enemies of this State. People lost their lives because of decisions taken, either authorised or unauthorised, within the IRA.

For my part, I will continue to raise this with the British Prime Minister in a situation where clearly there was a recommendation for a public inquiry into the death of Pat Finucane. I said that to his wife, his son and to his lawyer, and I said it publicly. That is why it is important because it was in the Weston Park discussions, and the Cory recommendation was very clear.

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