Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply and for his very clear commitment to meet with Justice for the Forgotten, the Ballymurphy families and Pat Finucane's family. I know that the Taoiseach is extremely busy but I have been here for two years and over that period I have been asking the Taoiseach to meet with these groups. I respectfully suggest that this needs to be prioritised in the Taoiseach's schedule.

This is the anniversary of the death of Pat Finucane. He was killed 24 years ago today. It is a difficult day for the family. I wrote to the Taoiseach on 13 December because I had been advocating the need for the Government to take the approach that was taken by the Government of the day in respect of the killings in Derry on Bloody Sunday. I advocated that the Government put together a file on these cases, especially the Pat Finucane case because it is my view that the work done back then with Tony Blair had a big effect on the decision to bring in the Saville inquiry. When I wrote to the Taoiseach on 13 December I was able to tell him that the late P.J. McGrory, the human rights lawyer, had spoken to me about a threat to his life before Pat Finucane was killed. This was coming around the UDA, which was putting pressure, and getting pressure from the RUC to kill him and his colleagues, Pat Finucane and Oliver Kelly. P.J. told me that he briefed the Irish Government of the day who said it would raise the matter with the Northern Ireland Office. Within hours of Pat being killed there was an official from the Irish Government in P.J.'s home because obviously the Government was concerned about his security and P.J. told me that the Taoiseach of the day, Charlie Haughey, telephoned him in the course of that visit by the official and said that he would take the matter up with Downing Street.

I asked if the Taoiseach would authorise or request a trawl of the documents in the Departments of the Taoiseach, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Justice and Equality and so on related to these matters in order that we could establish whether they had been raised with Downing Street at the time. I only received an acknowledgment of that letter today, two months after submitting my request. Has this trawl been made? Is there an effort to put together a file? Does the Taoiseach have a progress report on these matters? Alternatively, if he thinks it is a bad idea, I hope he will tell me so.

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