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

I wish to take the Taoiseach back to what was a fairly disappointing response to the Stardust families earlier and what I feel is a bit of a buck-passing exercise on his part when one considers the programme for Government and what it says about what the Government would do about the Stardust tragedy. It stated, "Full regard will be had to any new evidence which emerges which would be likely to definitely establish the cause of the fire at Stardust". The reason the Stardust families have had to go to the lengths of collecting 48,000 postcards appealing to the Attorney General is that the Taoiseach's Government has failed on this promise in the programme for Government to have regard to evidence that has been provided and gathered by the families. Thirty-seven years on, they are still fighting and are now having to go to the Attorney General because the Taoiseach's Government failed on a promise to take into account evidence gathered by them which suggests that the real cause of the fire was completely different from the causes claimed in the official reports. This evidence has been provided and I do not understand why the Government will not look at it, acknowledge it and give the families what they are asking for, which is an independent commission of investigation into the real causes of the fire so they can finally get truth and justice.

Will the Taoiseach not pass the buck but rather answer the families. Why has this not been done? A desktop report by Pat McCartan was not what they asked for. It did not look seriously at the new evidence they had provided, evidence that is staring the Government in the face, about the fire having started earlier in the roof space, eyewitness reports, maps of the Stardust building used in the original inquiries that were completely inaccurate and many other things I do not have time to mention. This evidence has been provided. Why will the Government not look at it and give the families the commission of investigation they have asked for?

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