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

I thank the Minister for his reply. Will he give an assurance that progress can and will be achieved in the area of establishing the truth in regard to collusion? In recent months we have witnessed excellent public service given by BBC and RTE in very good documentaries on collusion by British state forces with terrorist organisations in the North of Ireland and, indeed, also in the South. It is very important the truth is established with regard to the murder of many innocent people.

I had the opportunity to mention on numerous occasions in this House the need for the British Government to respond without further delay to the unanimous request of this Parliament to give access to an eminent international jurist to all papers and files relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974. It is extremely important that the British Government indicates it will respond positively. The truth is the very least to be expected for the families of those who were murdered so callously in 1974 and also the families of victims of other atrocities. Those documentaries were really chilling. We all would have known about the individual incidents but it was really chilling and frightening when they were catalogued and put in a documentary to show that state forces were colluding with terrorists and many innocent people on this island were killed. I appeal to the Minister to continue to pursue with the British Government the need to release the papers relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and also to make progress with regard to a proper investigation into the bombings in Belturbet in 1972.

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