Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Tá mé fíor-bhuíoch don Cheann Comhairle as ucht an seans labhairt faoin ábhar tábhachtach agus dáiríre seo. Tá mé buíoch don Aire Gnóthaí Eachtracha agus Trádála as ucht bheith i láthair. Today, as we should know, is the 26th anniversary of the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. I knew Pat very well. He was my lawyer. I am sure the Minister, as a lawyer himself, understands this and that he was an excellent advocate for the rights of citizens who refused to be intimidated by threats from loyalists and the RUC. Pat believed in the law. He believed he could use the law to bring about people's rights, create a way forward and defend people. I wish to commend Pat's wife, Geraldine, and their family for their unwavering courage and diligence in pursuing their demand for a public inquiry all these years.

In 2001, there was a breakthrough when the British and Irish Governments agreed at Weston Park to invite Judge Peter Cory to examine four cases. Judge Cory concluded that four inquiries should be held. Three have taken place, including one by the Irish Government. However, the British Government has refused to honour its commitment. In October 2011, the British Prime Minister further disappointed the Finucane family by dismissing the having of an inquiry and instead appointing Desmond de Silva to review the case files. The de Silva report was published in December 2012 and it revealed a shocking scale of collusion by the British and Unionist paramilitaries. It serves to reinforce the need for an inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane. The de Silva report revealed that 85% of intelligence the UDA used to target people for murder originated from British army and RUC sources.

Agents working for MI5, RUC Special Branch and British Military Intelligence were participating in criminality, including murder. This issue was also considered extensively at British cabinet level. There was administrative and ministerial authority for these policies. It has been revealed that the director general of MI5 briefed Margaret Thatcher in 1988. This is all fact. The murder of Pat Finucane by state agents was not a one-off incident. It was the norm.

Collusion was a matter of institutional and administrative practice by successive British Governments and Lethal Alliesby Anne Cadwallader should be necessary reading for every Teachta Dála in this House. She looks at the activities of one particular gang, the Glenanne gang. This practice involved the establishment of unionist paramilitary groups, the systematic infiltration by the British of all unionist death squads at the highest levels, the controlling and direction of these groups, their training, and they also provided them with information on people to be killed. This is based on a strategy developed by a man called Frank Kitson. He coined the phrase "counter-gangs". This is the set up of counter-gangs which was done in the North and other colonial places. They also helped to import weapons from the old South African apartheid regime, which killed hundreds of people. I do not have time to bring the House through the facts and detail of all of that.

The role of successive Irish Governments, not just this one, has not been as strategic or consistent as it could be. I spoke with Theresa Villiers, the British Secretary of State, by telephone today. Among other things, I raised this issue with her. I have raised it in this House and elsewhere countless times. The Taoiseach tells me and I have no reason to disbelieve him, in fact I believe him, that he has raised this issue with the British Prime Minister. However, I am not satisfied he has done it with the conviction required. It is clear that Mr. Cameron will not willingly agree to a public inquiry. He ruled this out when I raised it with him in the company of the Taoiseach during the Stormont House talks. Incidentally, the Taoiseach remained silent during that conversation. It is therefore little wonder that the British Government behaves as it does.

I request the Government to go beyond the polite requests which are brushed aside. We need to develop a strategy to employ the full resources of our diplomatic service to raise this case with our international friends at every opportunity and to bring the case before the UN. I applaud the fact that the case of the guinea pigs, the hooded-men, is being taken to the European Court. We should raise this issue within the European Union and with our friends in the Government of the United States. Every available international forum should know the Irish Government wants this case dealt with.

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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On this day, the 26th anniversary of the murder of Pat Finucane, I wish to express sympathy, on my own behalf and on behalf of members of the Government, to Mrs. Geraldine Finucane and all the Finucane family. That any family should witness the cold-blooded murder of a loved one is appalling. That their quest for the full and transparent truth about the horrendous events of that day is still ongoing only compounds their sense of loss and grief. This is why successive Irish Governments have consistently supported the call on behalf of the Finucane family for a full, independent and public judicial inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, in line with the commitments made by the Irish and British Governments at Weston Park in 2001. As Deputies will be aware, this position has the cross-party support of this House following an all-party motion of 2006 which called for the immediate establishment of such an inquiry.

In October 2011, the British Government announced that Desmond de Silva QC would conduct a legal review into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Pat Finucane. The review was proposed as an alternative to the public inquiry which had been recommended by the Canadian judge, Judge Cory, in his independent report produced in accordance with the commitments of the Weston Park agreement. The report of the de Silva review was published in December 2012. It found that there was state collusion in the case and that "a series of positive actions by employees of the State actively furthered and facilitated [Pat Finucane's] murder, and that, in the aftermath of the murder, there was a relentless attempt to defeat the ends of justice".

In his statement to the House of Commons on 12 December 2012, Prime Minister Cameron accepted the report's findings of shocking levels of state collusion and repeated his apology to the Finucane family. He disagreed, however, that a public inquiry would produce a fuller picture of what happened and what went wrong. Following the publication of the report, the Government reiterated our position on the need for an independent public inquiry into the murder in accordance with the Weston Park agreement and the recommendation of Judge Cory.

We continue to do so. As recently as yesterday, I raised the issue during my meeting with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers. She repeated, as I am sure she did to Deputy Adams this afternoon, the current British Government's position that the clear findings of the de Silva review report and Prime Minister Cameron's public apology in the House of Commons constitute her Government's response to the case and that it does not intend to provide for a full public inquiry. I note that following the publication of the de Silva review report, the opposition Labour Party in Britain indicated that it believes a public inquiry is necessary for Pat Finucane's family and for Northern Ireland. I understand that judicial review proceedings are being taken by Mrs. Finucane in the High Court in Northern Ireland regarding the decision not to hold a public inquiry.

I reiterate to Deputy Adams and indeed to the House that today is a particularly sad day for the Finucane family. I reiterate my condolences to them on their great loss. The Irish Government will continue to support them in their quest for a full public truth regarding the dreadful events of 26 years ago.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I am disappointed with the Minister's answer. Have we raised this at the UN? Have we raised this at the EU? Have we asked our ambassadors to lobby on this internationally? Have we raised this with the Obama Administration in the White House? This is what Governments are supposed to do. They are supposed to use diplomatic services to uphold the rights of citizens. The Minister should read Frank Kitson's book on the counter-insurgency strategy in the North. I commend it to him. That strategy was honed over decades of colonial actions around the world. At its core, Frank Kitson articulated that "the Law should be used as just another weapon [to get rid of] unwanted members of the public". Pat Finucane was an officer of the court and a human rights lawyer. He was got rid of not by murder gangs, but at the direction under the administrative practice that the British Government has cleared. Report after report has lifted the lid on many actions.

We know that the peace process did not happen by an act of divine mercy. It did not happen by accident. It happened because people took risks, chances and appropriate steps. We are not asking the Government to take huge risks. A British Government will be assisted. I remind the House that they have just had to open the books on their torture of Mau Mau detainees 40 years ago. They were recently forced to open the books on the people they tortured in Palace Barracks outside Belfast. This is good for the process of building the future. I will repeat what I have said many times. The British and Irish Governments are co-equal guarantors of all that has flowed from the Good Friday Agreement onwards. We are not junior partners. We are co-equal guarantors. I will repeat the call I have made. I know I sometimes speak very directly. I do not mean to be harsh. It is the way I talk. We should launch a diplomatic initiative in the US, at the heart of EU and in the UN on this and other cases. We need to develop a strategy and a campaign to bring this about. We should use our status as having one of the most successful peace processes in modern times. These issues continue to infect and draw down, rather than giving people closure. I respectfully commend this approach to the Minister.

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I wish to make it quite clear to Deputy Adams and everybody in the House and beyond that there is absolutely no ambivalence on the part of the Government as far as this issue is concerned. We continue to make it absolutely clear in all circumstances that the position of the Irish Government remains one of full support for a public inquiry in line with the commitments agreed upon at Weston Park. That has been the position for many years and continues to be the position. There is absolutely no movement in that regard. We made it quite clear as recently as yesterday that our position differs fundamentally from that of the British Government. Can I say to Deputy Adams that this Government will continue to support the Finucane family in whatever way possible in their quest to establish a full and transparent truth on this issue?

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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They want the Government to do what I have outlined.

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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In fact, my Department will be represented this evening in Belfast with representatives of the Finucane family as the group marks the anniversary of the brutal murder. My officials have worked closely with the family. We will continue to work closely with the family in the context of our discussions with the British Government and beyond. Officials from the Department have been working during the course of Judge Cory's review at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. We will continue to raise this issue through diplomatic channels and at every opportunity so that the quest for justice and truth on this issue can be brought to a conclusion and the Finucane family and the people of Northern Ireland can receive closure.