Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am trying to make some sense of this. Geraldine Finucane dismissed the de Silva report as a sham, a whitewash and a confidence trick. There is no way any British Government is going to initiate the type of inquiry it is obliged to under the Weston Park agreement. We could still be here in 20, 30 or 40 years' time but they are not going to do it and there is a reason they are not going to do it.

My specific question to the Taoiseach was whether he had been in contact with the British Prime Minister in respect of the recent publication of the de Silva report into the murder of human rights solicitor Pat Finucane. The Taoiseach stated he had been in touch on the morning before the report was published. Why should the British Government take any of this seriously when the Irish Government is not championing the cause? The Irish Government should take a strategic view of this.

It was my great privilege to know Pat Finucane. The Taoiseach referred earlier to a belief in politics. Pat Finucane had a belief in the law. He was a working class Belfast man. He went to the same primary and grammar schools as me, although I did not know him at that time. He educated himself and came to the belief that there was redress for people who were subject to the brutality of British occupation, incarceration or interrogation through the application of the law. By doing that and by using the law to win justice for these people he put himself in the firing line and the British Government conspired to get rid of him, not the current British Government but the British Government of the day. There is ample proof of this and we know the unit of British military intelligence which killed Pat Finucane received 74 awards and honours, including one for the colonel who was in charge at the time, Colonel Kerr. He received an OBE two years after Pat Finucane was killed.

This particular case goes to the core of how the British Government conspired to give information, to arm and to direct counter gangs to get rid of what one of its strategists referred to as unwanted members of the public. That was what the British Government was about in terms of low intensity operations. Pat Finucane was an officer of the court and a human rights lawyer disposed of because his presence did not suit the particular plans of the British Government at that time.

We live in more enlightened times. I do not believe in a hierarchy of victims, it has become something of a cliché. However, I firmly believe that every victim deserves to be dealt with on the basis of equality. In this case, where the subject of an inquiry is the core of an international agreement between two governments, I appeal to the Taoiseach to become a champion and to employ our diplomatic services. Of course we raise the issue on St. Patrick's Day and if we meet the US Administration or the Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry. We do all of that but this needs more. Mr. Cameron needs to know that this is a very significant issue for the Government but he does not know that. He believes that he has the Government in his pocket on this issue. I do not say as much to be offensive or insulting. I appeal to the Taoiseach to make this a priority for the Government and to go at it strategically. In this way he will help to bring about the necessary type of healing process for everyone in the North as we deal with all of these legacy issues.

See this speech in context