Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The fire which took place on the morning of 14 February 1981 in the Stardust nightclub in Artane was absolutely horrific. The loss of life and the widespread injuries sustained by so many people make it one of the greatest tragedies in modern Irish history. Of the 700 young people in attendance that night, 48 never came home and 128 were seriously injured. Devastated survivors and families and the wider local community all struggle to come to terms with the scale of the disaster and its aftermath, and for some the struggle continues.

I too watched the RTÉ documentary last Tuesday entitled "After the Headlines", in which Charlie Bird recently interviewed some of the families caught up in the fire. It is clear that for some of the families of the victims and the survivors the aftermath of the Stardust fire is still very much a part of their everyday lives. I was 20 at the time of the fire and I have lived in north Dublin all my life.

I had been to the Stardust night club on occasion. The 1980s was a bleak enough period and at the time the big employers in the area were Cadbury's and Tayto. In the circumstances, the Stardust offered some glamour and glitz and was a major social meeting place.

I was first elected to Dublin City Council in 1985 and since then I have tried to assist people to work through many of the issues arising from the fire. We need to assess what has happened since then. At the time, the Keane tribunal was established and it eventually published its final report. It investigated the fire in accordance with the norms and standards of the time and it is fair to say that as a result of modern technology and scientific breakthroughs, a much higher standard applies today. The finding that the cause of the fire was probably arson satisfied nobody and was a slur on the local community and all those present on the night. The Coffey report dealt with this matter and as a result, the Dáil and Seanad passed motions in 2009 to the effect that there was no basis in fact for the finding that the fire was caused by arson. The finding of arson was a mere hypothetical explanation unsupported by evidence. We now have the McCartan report. Judge Pat McCartan's report is blunt, to say the least; unnecessarily so in my view. Some of his comments on those involved in the inquiry are a bit offensive and uncalled for. I will come to his central findings later.

Subsequent to the fire in 1981, Garret FitzGerald's Government, with the help of the then Attorney General, Mr. John Rogers, SC, introduced a compensation scheme for those caught up in the tragedy. The payments at the time were just about satisfactory having regard to the norms of the 1980s, but they were certainly not generous by today's standards. One of the main objectives of the Stardust Relatives and Victims Committee was to ensure that such a fire never happened again. It is welcome that the specific recommendations made by the Keane tribunal led to a complete transformation of our fire safety and protection measures. A new legislative framework was put in place on the enactment of the Fire Services Act 1981.

A campaign for a suitable memorial for the victims was also launched at the time. In 1992, the Government announced that £250,000 would be made available for the construction of the Stardust Memorial Park in Bonnybrook. It is a beautiful park which contains a sculpture of two dancers and a water feature. The relatives find some peace and tranquility among the roses and in the park generally, in particular during the annual anniversary of the tragedy. I congratulate Dublin City Council on the work it has done on that facility. Five victims of the fire remained unidentified for many years but DNA technology has latterly allowed for the successful identification of their remains and made it possible for their families to erect headstones and hold services for their lost loved ones. I pay tribute to the Stardust Relatives and Victims Committee on its long campaign and hope they can acknowledge some of the small victories they have achieved along the way. However, they have more on their agenda and do not necessarily want any praise from me.

I wish to say something about my late father who was Taoiseach in 1981 and served as a TD for the area for 35 years. I am firmly of the view that there was no conspiracy or cover-up as far as the Stardust fire is concerned. There were no family links or other connections between my father and the Butterly family, the owners of the complex. In their book, They Never Came Home - the Stardust Story, Niall Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh state the following on page 242:

There is little doubt that Haughey was personally devastated by the Stardust disaster and that his concern for the victims was heartfelt and sincere. It is also important to remember that Haughey spent much of the 1980s on the Opposition benches; he was hardly in a prime position to influence Government decisions let alone a cover-up relating to the Stardust. As Opposition leader, Haughey played a key role in eventually securing compensation for the victims by putting pressure on the Fine Gael-Labour Government to establish a special tribunal.

It is a fair and accurate assessment of his position. It should also be said that it is outrageous that Irish law allowed compensation to be paid to the Butterly family after the fire, despite the undisputed evidence that fire exits in the complex were chained on the night. It must have been a very bitter pill for the families to swallow.

The Coffey report recommended that counselling and medical treatment should be afforded to the survivors and the bereaved where necessary and appropriate at the expense of the State. To progress the implementation of this recommendation, the Department of Justice and Equality placed advertisements in national newspapers seeking information on the level of need existing among survivors. The Department also engaged with legal representatives of the Stardust Relatives and Victims Committee in this regard. Arising from the consultation process, the need for the provision of counselling services was identified and appropriate arrangements were made with a number of individuals receiving such services. I hope these arrangements remain in place.

Judge McCartan concluded that there is no new evidence which warrants a commission of inquiry. This conclusion cannot easily be dismissed and is a significant development. The Stardust Relatives and Victims Committee met my colleague, Deputy John Lahart, on Tuesday this week. Deputy Lahart explained that the establishment of the McCartan examination, despite its disappointing outcome, fulfilled Deputy Micheál Martin's previous commitment in this regard. The committee continues to seek some reports on aspects of the Stardust tragedy from the Department of Justice and Equality, including the reports of Mr. Arthur Green, Mr. David Tucker, Mr. Frederick Porges and Dr. John Harbison, none of which have ever been published but relate in some cases to a possible cause of death. The committee also seeks the coroner's report into the deaths of the Stardust victims. The committee is exploring the possibility of the creation of a computer simulation of the Stardust fire into which all evidence can be input. My party will follow these matters up with the relevant agencies and the Department of Justice and Equality.

Unfortunately and sadly, there are now three independent reviews which have found that there is no realistic prospect of coming to a definitive conclusion on the cause of the fire. This assessment at this time will be very difficult for all of us to accept.

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