Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I agree there should not be a hierarchy of victims. I have welcomed the decision of the court to allow the family to have a full judicial review. However, the family should not have to go to the courts for 20 years. That is our failure and the failure of diplomacy. It is the failure of the Irish Government using all its channels to get this family its demands, as well as in the other cases that were raised. It would be very revealing to get a sense of the letters, communications and the different means the Government has used to ventilate these issues with the British Government. I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach raised the issue but I am not assured that this forms part of a real diplomatic initiative by the Government. If the Taoiseach was doing that and fulfilling his responsibility for these citizens to have their entitlements and rights, he could lecture everybody else.

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