Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Tánaiste has rightly pointed out, five decades have passed and no progress on this matter has been indicated by the British Government. To any reasonable person, the passage of time in this instance negates any reasonable excuse for continuing to prevent access to that information. I welcome the Tánaiste's commitment and I hope we will see progress on the need to hand over all files and papers pertaining to this bombing to an eminent independent international legal figure. I note, as the Tánaiste has noted, the resolution of this House on four occasions, in 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2024, seeking the release by the UK Government of the original intelligence and security documents. Notwithstanding the call by a sovereign parliament on a neighbouring government to co-operate with a reasonable inquiry, the moral and legal obligation on the British Government to hand over these documents is quite considerable. As the relatives of those who suffered and lost loved ones in those bombings get older, the least the British Government could do is to recognise that pain and allow for that co-operation. I also ask the Tánaiste to strongly request full co-operation with the Garda investigation into the Belturbet bombings in 1972, in which teenagers Geraldine O'Reilly and Patrick Stanley were killed.

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