Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, one of which took place in her constituency. I again take the opportunity to extend my condolences to the survivors and the families of those affected, many of whom are still grieving and still do not have the answers to the questions they ask. Unfortunately, I am not in a position either to answer them. There is only so much information that any of us has on these terrible events which occurred some decades ago. I do not have an up-to-date note on the issue in front of me, but I will try over the course of the week to respond in some detail in writing to the Deputy's questions. I had not anticipated that the issue would be raised today.

Regarding historical inquiries in general, this is something of which the Government is very supportive. However, the fact that the institutions - east-west, North-South and in Northern Ireland - are not functioning in they way they should has meant that much of the progress on legacy issues that should have been happening has ground to a halt.

I had the opportunity to meet the leader of the DUP last night when we had a discussion on many issues, including what could be done to get the institutions in Northern Ireland up and running again. She seemed to be committed to it happening and it can happen once there is more clarity on what Brexit will look like. The Tánaiste and I are very committed to doing everything we can, once there is clarity on Brexit, to acting quickly to reconvene the talks, subject to the agreement of the parties, and trying to have the Assembly and the Executive up and running again and the North-South institutions functioning again. That will put us in a place where we can start to honour some of the commitments made on legacy issues.

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