Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I want to refer him to comments made by Austin Stack recently. He said:

Gerry Adams brought us in a blacked out van to see an IRA leader who he said he trusted and was a friend. Adams told us and reaffirmed this in the media last week that he asked this IRA leader to carry out an investigation.

An investigation was carried out internally. Mr. Stack went on to say that "this man told us that he knew who murdered my father, that the perpetrators were still alive and that one of them had been disciplined ".

He continued, "Gerry Adams knows this man and unless he has given his name to the Gardaí then he is withholding information." Clearly, as Mr. Stack stated, this IRA leader reported back to Deputy Gerry Adams on the investigation.

It is, by any measure, extraordinary stuff when one stands back and reflects on it. Imagine any one of us going off and saying we know who murdered someone, we had it checked out, that is, we had someone investigate it and that person had come back to us, but that we did not tell anyone about it for two and a half years. Allegedly, Deputy Gerry Adams had the four names which he says he was given in 2013, but he did not tell anyone until February this year because the issue was raised in the general election. This is a murder. It is not about an election campaign or boxing clever in the middle of it. The Taoiseach said it: a man is at large. The Provos know who did it, but they are not being held accountable in this House and their parliamentary representatives are not being held accountable in it, yet they expect everyone else to be held accountable on every other issue concerning injustices perpetrated on many citizens on this island.

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