Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As others have done, I welcome and acknowledge the presence of the Stardust families in the Public Gallery. I commend them on their continuing, heroic battle for truth and justice regarding the causes of the fire that consumed 48 young people - their loved ones - in 1981. I do not really understand the McCartan report's conclusions. I have met Pat McCartan and he seems to be a good man but I really do not understand the conclusions. I do not accept his view. The families are right not to accept that there is no necessity for a full commission of investigation and inquiry into the fire and its causes.

One of the key pieces of evidence the families and victims brought forward relates to Brenda Kelly and her evidence that the fire started considerably earlier than the Keane report suggested and that she saw the fire in the roof space. We also know that there were large amounts of combustible material in the storeroom. That does not definitively prove the cause of the fire. However, it radically alters how we might begin to examine the existing evidence and look for new evidence to try to ascertain the causes of the fire. It radically changes matters. McCartan acknowledges that point. I do not have time to look for the quote now but he makes the point that if Brenda Kelly's evidence is correct, then it is likely that the fire started in the roof space. If the fire started in the roof space and there was a large amount of combustible material present, that must be examined. We will have other evidence from people who were in the ballroom that they felt intense heat in the ceiling above them long before there was evidence of fire in the ballroom.

We know that fire and planning regulations were being flouted. All of that justifies a re-examination of all the evidence. That is the point. Geraldine Foy and the families could never provide conclusive evidence as to the cause of the fire. How could they possibly do so? For McCartan to criticise them for their lack of expertise in being able to definitively prove how the fire started is completely unreasonable. How can Pat McCartan or, for that matter, Mr. Coffey, conclude whether it was possible to identify the causes of the fire? If Geraldine Foy is not an expert, then neither are they. They are not experts so it is unreasonable for McCartan to rubbish the evidence she uncovered and also her re-examination of the available evidence. If, on the balance of probability - a reasonable legal basis on which to re-examine matters - the best explanation for the rapid spread of the fire is that it started in the roof and there was combustible material present, then that is enough justification to re-examine everything. It is absolutely extraordinary that McCartan says that if Brenda Kelly's evidence is true, the fire started in the roof space. However, he never sought to establish whether that evidence is true.

Many of the other experts and witnesses who could have fleshed out the alternative possibility of how the fire started were never interviewed. Their evidence was never taken into account. That is just not good enough. It is not good enough to criticise the incredible work of Geraldine Foy on the basis that she is not a professional researcher or expert. She never claimed to be either. Part of the battle the families have been having with the Government all along relates to their lack of resources. They had to do this largely on a voluntary basis. What they have done is incredible, particularly in light of the limited resources that were available to them.

What is happening is not good enough. I blame the Government more than I blame Pat McCartan. Why do I say that? The answer is that when the motion relating to this matter was passed, some of us sought to amend it to say we should just have a commission of investigation. We felt that the Government's refusal to facilitate the establishment of a commission amounted to selling a pup to the families. A great deal of pressure was put on the families to say that the McCartan review would achieve what they wanted. It could never do that. It was not possible for it to do that. They were sold a pup for political reasons. Why did the Government not just establish a commission of investigation? There was enough evidence to suggest it was warranted. I do not see how the Government can say anything else.

I appeal to the Government to recognise that we have gone about this in the wrong way. A paper review, which is really what this was - with the only additions being that the victims were met and Geraldine Foy's report was looked at - was never going to be enough. What was necessary was to say that if they had got some serious points and evidence, then a wider and more comprehensive investigation was necessary and this would require a full commission of investigation. I appeal to the Government to reconsider the matter and to give the families the commission of investigation for which they have asked. They will not cease their battle. They have good cause to continue to demand that the commission of investigation for which they have fought so long and hard in the interests of obtaining justice and getting to the truth of what happened to 48 young people in Artane in 1981 be established.

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