Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the de Silva report, the House must acknowledge the positive approach the UK Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, has taken to it. We must also acknowledge the demand of the Finucane family for a full public inquiry into the matter. Fianna Fáil supports the Taoiseach and the Government in their support for the family in adopting that approach. I am conscious that while Desmond de Silva's report has brought significant new information into the public arena, we have seen from the British side nothing more than an incremental approach to this matter in the past 24 years. Lord Stevens was able to elicit a certain amount of information, as did Judge Cory subsequently.

I am conscious of the UK Prime Minister's statement on the day of publication of the de Silva report: “Sir Desmond's report has now given us the fullest possible account of the murder of Patrick Finucane and the truth about state collusion.” Continued progress in the troubled Six Counties can only be achieved when cases such as this are addressed. We have to accept the Pat Finucane case was one of a number that touched the hearts and minds of people the length and breadth of the country. The spectre of a decent family man who was doing pioneering work as a civil rights and human rights solicitor being slaughtered in front of his wife and family on a Sunday afternoon in the family home is repulsive to every decent Member and it is an issue that is not going to go away. The Taoiseach's approach is the right one and we support him in it.

How can all of us, in particular the Taoiseach, step up the pressure on the British Government to go the necessary final furlong? Did the Taoiseach avail of the opportunity recently to discuss the case with the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers? Did he have the opportunity to discuss it with the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton? When he travels to the United States in March, will he take the opportunity to take it up with the US President, Barack Obama, and the new Secretary of State, John Kerry?

Having mentioned Hillary Clinton, I hope it is not inappropriate, but it would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to her for the outstanding service she has given to this country and, in particular, that she gave during the initial stages of the peace process, as well as in consolidating it during her term as US Secretary of State.

I had the great privilege in the past of sitting on the justice committee which considered Judge Henry Barron's work on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings and certain other events. What was revealed was not so far removed from the British Government's response to the Finucane case. We see it has been laborious and incremental, with information having to be drawn from it. All of us know in our hearts that there is both intelligence information and documentation available to the British Government on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings that it has failed to produce. I commend the work of Justice for the Forgotten which has been indefatigable in its pursuit of the truth in these heinous crimes that shocked the nation.

With my party leader, I availed of the opportunity to discuss these matters with the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, and the former British ambassador to Ireland, Julian King. It was patently obvious to me from these discussions that the British Government was not willing to release any information it had available on this series of atrocities. Given the genuinely positive new relations on an east-west basis between Britain and Ireland, how do we work together to impress on the British Prime Minister who is a decent man that there is unfinished business in which the truth must be provided in order to complete the process of rehabilitation?

What can all of us do and, in particular, what can the Taoiseach do to advance that particular matter?

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