Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On this, the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, I offer my condolences and those of my Government colleagues to the McAnespie family and in particular to Aidan McAnespie's elderly father. It was a tragedy for his family and for the wider community. Dealing with the legacy of the Troubles on this island is a difficult and complex task without any immediate or easy solutions. The Deputy will recall that the Government, the British Government and the parties in Northern Ireland worked together over an extended period in 2014 to establish the Stormont House Agreement. I was personally involved in that process as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade at the time. Among other elements that agreement sets out a series of measures to put in place a structured framework to deal with Troubles related deaths, where there are unresolved issues, and to seek to provide more information to victims and to victims' families where that is possible.

I assure the House that the Government remains fully committed to playing its part in implementing those measures and that work is ongoing to seek to achieve that. The re-establishment of the institutional framework provided for under the Good Friday Agreement remains central to these efforts. I hope that once the measures provided for in the Stormont House Agreement have been put in place that these will provide an opportunity for the families of the many persons killed during the Troubles to seek to access further information about those deaths where they wish to do so.

I have listened to Deputy Ó Caoláin and I would be happy to engage further to see how we can advance the process but having regard to the strict obligation that I have around the undertakings that were given on the occasion of the inquiry, which has been referred to by Deputy Ó Caoláin.

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