Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this important issue which I do at the request of Raymond McCord Snr. who has given me detailed information on his son's case.

Mr. McCord has suffered a campaign of intimidation and violence from the UDA. He has been beaten up and left for dead. Subsequently, he has campaigned to obtain justice for his son. Gunmen have targeted his family and he has been ordered to leave Northern Ireland. He has refused to do so. I salute both his courage and his integrity.

Perhaps it was in order to seek protection from the UDA that his son became involved briefly with the Mount Vernon UVF, under the command of Mark Haddock. In November 1997 he was battered to death and his body was dumped in a quarry. According to his father, the Mount Vernon UVF murdered Raymond McCord because he had been summoned by John "Bunter" Graham, the officer commanding the UVF on the Shankill Road, to account for his role in ferrying drugs for Mark Haddock. He was murdered to prevent Graham finding out about Haddock's unsanctioned drugs operations.

At least two members of the gang who carried out the murder were Special Branch informers. They were Mark Haddock, who ordered the murder, and John Bond, who was present when Raymond McCord was murdered. Both these men were also allegedly involved in an attempt to bomb the Sinn Féin offices in Monaghan. Haddock was originally handled by Johnston Brown, a CID officer in the RUC. RUC Special Branch later took over the handling of informers. Haddock is said to have been recruited as an informer after he murdered Sharon McKenna, a Catholic and home help worker, who was shot while visiting a friend in Mount Vernon in January 1993.

Since the McKenna murder, and while serving as an RUC informer, Haddock has been associated with the murder of Gary Convie and Éamon Fox, both of whom were Catholics shot on a building site in May 1994; Thomas Sheppard, an alleged informer shot in March 1996; the Reverend David Templeton, a Protestant clergyman who died in March 1997, having been severely beaten; Billy Harbinson, handcuffed, beaten and left to die in May 1997; Tommy English, a former UDP politician beaten and shot in October 2000; and David Greer, shot during a loyalist feud in October 2000.

The central allegation is that Haddock was not charged with any crime because he was an informer who had to be protected. He was able to act with impunity while the police effectively colluded in his crimes. Johnston Brown said in a television documentary:

If you're asking me are there people who had committed murder but got away with it because of informants, yes they did . . . If you're asking me if, on some occasions, the informants go outside those parameters, yes they did. Including murder? Yes they did. Were they protected by the highest authority? Yes, they were. . . Could we have put the majority of them in jail in 1997, 1998, 1999? Absolutely. Would lives have been saved time and time again? Yes indeed . . . There appeared to be no will to prosecute certain individuals. I couldn't understand it and I spoke of my reservations but you're a voice in the wilderness.

I understand we will hear more from Mr. Brown when his book, Into the Dark, is launched in Belfast next week.

For almost eight years the investigation into the Raymond McCord murder has gone nowhere. His father is morally certain who killed his son but the perpetrators enjoy immunity for their acts. The police need for intelligence has trumped the state's duty to protect the right of life. Mark Haddock is now awaiting trial for attempted murder. Mr. McCord understands he will plead guilty and may serve less than ten years in prison. There is no progress in any of the outstanding murder investigations. The Police Ombudsman is finalising the most difficult investigation of her career and will report before Christmas.

The question for us is what our Government should do about all of this. We are used to debating here the cases of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson and others who come from the Nationalist community. Our commitment to those we claim as fellow nationals requires us to extend a similar degree of concern where victims come from the other side of the divide in Northern Ireland and allegations of police collusion are made.

A generation ago a British Prime Minister could summon a lord chief justice and give him the right political steer before a judicial tribunal by saying: "Remember we're fighting a war over there". The IRA throughout its murderous 30-year campaign also insisted it was fighting a war. I never believed there was a war in Northern Ireland or justification for a war. Nor do I believe there was ever justification for emergency wartime departure from adherence to the rule of law. If the statement that the war is over means anything it means that we must reassert our insistence on peacetime standards of justice, on adherence to the rule of law and on fair and impartial policing.

The Government has both the entitlement and the obligation to raise the issue of the integrity of policing within the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Once the O'Loan report is published, there must be an inquiry. Judge Peter Cory, some law lords in the UK, most independent commentators, the Government and I have all condemned the Inquiries Act, rushed through the British Parliament in the week before the British general election. The Government must insist upon the utter inadequacy of that legislation in delivering a comprehensive and credible inquiry. An international element is required to guarantee independence and impartiality.

Mr. Raymond McCord has lost a 22-year-old son to a violent and ruthless organisation that seems to have operated with the surreptitious sanction of the police. We owe it to him and to all others who have lost family, friends and neighbours to ensure, as best we can, that they receive justice.

Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy and the House are aware, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Ms Nuala O'Loan, has been engaged in an investigation into the circumstances of the murder of Mr. Raymond McCord and related matters. This investigation has been ongoing for the past two years. It was initiated following a complaint received by that office from Mr. Raymond McCord Snr, which alleged police misconduct, regarding the circumstances of his son's murder, which was believed to have been committed by loyalist paramilitaries.

The office of the Police Ombudsman advised us that the investigation is largely complete and that an interim report was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. A final report will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland, shortly. The public report on the investigation will be released after the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland has deliberated on the issue.

As attested by the Oversight Commissioner for Policing in Northern Ireland in his latest report published in September last, the office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is operating extremely effectively in its crucial role. This is also the stated opinion of the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Select Committee and the inspectorate of constabulary. Most notably, there has been a steady increase in confidence, on both sides of the community, in the work of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. The Government has absolute confidence in the ability and independence of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. We are satisfied that under her guidance, the McCord case is currently subject to a rigorous investigation.

In the context of the sensitive stage the investigation has reached any comment on the possible establishment of an independent inquiry into this issue would be premature. The Government will continue to monitor developments in this case very closely and will give its immediate and careful consideration to the ombudsman's report and any recommendations that it makes when it is published. I have listened with great interest to Deputy Rabbitte's very detailed contribution and in particular his reference to policing in Northern Ireland. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is present in the House and he along with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach at bilateral meetings on a North-South basis and at east-west meetings with the British Government have consistently and repeatedly raised the policing issue. The Deputy can be assured that the Government and its representatives along with our excellent senior officials consistently raise the issue.