Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too wish to raise the issue of last night's programme on collusion. I do so in two contexts: first, the need for a debate in this House and, second, the question of the Good Friday Agreement and the commitments in the programme for Government to the full implementation of that Agreement. I welcome the Taoiseach's indication that a debate will take place. However, he has said consistently that there would be a debate on a motion regarding the Ballymurphy massacre. I welcome the fact we received a draft motion, which I signed off on in consultation with the families. However, we are still waiting for a date for that debate. It is difficult to get issues relating to the North discussed here with the frequency they require. Will the Taoiseach request or instruct the Government Chief Whip to arrange these debates before the summer recess?

Last night's programme tells us, particularly people like me from the North, what we have already known for a very long time, namely, the depth at which the British Government directed, from the highest political level, the killing of citizens. It is also clear from some of the former Government spokespersons that successive Governments here were aware of or at least suspected collusion. In my view, successive Irish Governments have failed hundreds of families of citizens in the North but also in this State. The most obvious example is the Dublin-Monaghan bombings but there are other cases, including the Dundalk bombings in 1975, in which Hugh Watters and Jack Rooney were killed, and the case of Seamus Ludlow. The Government has a responsibility in these matters. It is not just a matter of our having a debate. The Government is co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. Where does the citizen look to if not to the Government? The Finucane inquiry has not been established and the British Government is saying it will not establish it. I have come in here many times and asked the Government to put together a strategy, using our international friends and our diplomatic capacity, to get the British Government to do what it is obliged to do under the Good Friday and other agreements.

It might not be the appropriate time to raise this, but Relatives for Justice represents hundreds of families who are victims of state terrorism. The Taoiseach should meet them to inform himself on all these matters. I understand he is meeting David Cameron later this week. Is it his intention to raise these issues at that meeting? This is a neighbouring state whose Government authorised its forces to kill citizens of this nation and of this State.

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