Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. Would he agree that the motions put forward and unanimously endorsed by all in this House in 2008 and 2011 requesting the British Government to allow access by an independent international judicial figure to all original documentation held by the British Government relating to the atrocities that occurred in this jurisdiction, and which were inquired into by Mr. Justice Barron, for the purposes of assessing said documents with the aim of assisting in the resolution of these crimes were reasonable requests? Unfortunately, as outlined in Anne Cadwallader's book those requests from this House have, in terms of the British Government's lack of response, fallen on deaf ears.

The Tánaiste will be aware that I recently had the opportunity to meet with Secretary of State Villiers and the Labour Party spokesperson Ivan Lewis, with whom I raised the need for the British Government to respond positively to the requests of this House. Mr. Justice Barron outlined in the very good work done by him in this regard in 2003 the clear collusion that occurred with some State security forces in assisting the UVF in those terrible atrocities.

See this speech in context