Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I made this point. Clearly the British Government's decision to appoint a Queen's counsel is not satisfactory. It is not satisfactory to us because it is a breach of an international agreement. It is not satisfactory to the Finucane family which feels completely let down. I have no idea what is in the papers or when the Queen's counsel may make a response or a finding. The Deputy will also be aware of the court decision in this matter. If the British Government has made the decision to appoint a Queen's counsel to investigate this, I cannot direct it to terminate that now and start a public inquiry. However, I asked the Prime Minister what would happen in the event that the Queen's counsel is unable to make a new finding or reach a new conclusion. I understand there are 1 million pieces of paper on this.

Our perspective is the same as that of everybody in the House. Judge Cory undertook to issue a report. There was an agreement that whatever recommendations the judge made would be followed through by both Governments. That has not been followed through by the British Government and in that sense it is a breach of that agreement. I have said that very strongly to the British Prime Minister on more than one occasion. I presume the process now is to see what arises from the decision and from findings, if any, that Sir Desmond de Silva comes up with. I have made this very clear in Northern Ireland when I have been pressurised about other public inquiries. This is a case where there was a very clear international agreement. The judge made a recommendation that a public inquiry should be held into those two cases. This State went about its business and set up the Smithwick tribunal - the British Government chose not to do so. There we have a breach of that agreement and I have said that directly to the British Prime Minister.

I do not know what the British Government's attitude will be when Sir Desmond de Silva makes a recommendation or a finding. Presumably given the strength of the objection from the Finucane family and from Geraldine Finucane that this is very far short of what the recommendation was, clearly I do not think it will be acceptable without prejudicing whatever the finding might be. That goes back to the fundamental issue. There was a clear agreement internationally - a clear recommendation and that should be followed through. Regardless of what might be said about all the other cases, about which I hear there should be further public inquiries, this is one that is the subject of an international agreement that I feel should be honoured. I will raise that at every opportunity I have.

We discussed Ireland's economic situation. We discussed foreign direct investment from the United States into Ireland, and also the challenges we face here because of the debt problem. I explained to the president our overall strategy that a break, and assistance and co-operation in respect of having a longer period and lower interest rates would be very beneficial to us. We did not discuss the detail of the comments made by the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Geithner, because that was dealt with exhaustively by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan.

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