Results 41-60 of 60 for segment:1714080 in 'Dáil debates'

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Rory O'Hanlon: Deputy, will you withdraw the word "lie"?

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Joe Higgins: Yes, and I will say it was an utterly fraudulent claim, which is the same thing. Does the Taoiseach acknowledge that the relatives and victims attending and watching the sub-committee hearings are still of the opinion that they require a wider public inquiry and that alone should give serious cause for consideration of that course of action?

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Bertie Ahern: I am aware of everything Mr. Justice Barron has said and of all the meetings which were set up. I have already answered questions on those matters. I am also aware that some people who have contributed to the public hearings have made comments on the issue of a public inquiry and on the form such an inquiry might take. There are serious, complex issues involved and the sub-committee's...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Does the Taoiseach not recognise that the negative view he expressed in regard to his expectation of further information or documentation being made available from the British side is, itself, something that will add to their resolve not to co-operate and not to provide further information and documentation? When our Prime Minister makes the statement that he has no further expectation of...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Rory O'Hanlon: The Deputy should confine himself to a question.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: It is a question. I am asking the Taoiseach if he does not recognise that his statement could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the issue of the missing files, the Taoiseach has not confirmed whether any level of investigation prior to or since his becoming Taoiseach was undertaken in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, in regard to the copy files that have also gone...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Rory O'Hanlon: The Deputy is being repetitive.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: ——that an investigation as to what happened to the files, which is a matter of great national importance, is now required? Will the Taoiseach please clarify this matter?

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Bertie Ahern: I am sorry if I did not make that clear. I thought I did. When it became clear some years ago, the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, instituted a full examination and investigation in the Department while the Garda Commissioner carried out an examination of Garda files. They did not uncover the whereabouts of the files. It was not established how, why or...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Whatever failings you have——

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Rory O'Hanlon: I ask Deputy Ó Caoláin to allow the Taoiseach to respond.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Bertie Ahern: I have answered this question already. I based this judgment on a far more difficult decision when we came to the Bloody Sunday tribunal, and Prime Minister Blair, against the advice of everybody in his administration and elsewhere, pressed ahead to set up the inquiry. On another terrible incident the Government, through a former chief justice, made a similar request of him. The Deputy is...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: I am prepared to take at face value what the Taoiseach has said in his assessment of the politicians he has dealt with. Is there not a question about the intelligence on which they rely? We have seen dramatic and unprecedented evidence of this in the past 72 hours where the President of the United States is prepared to reverse engines on the reasons for going to war and is now inquiring into...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach is now the only person who believes there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: ——presumably because the British intelligence services are afraid the American inquiry will show they relied on the Brits——

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Rory O'Hanlon: We seem to be rambling outside the substance of the questions. We have gone past Taoiseach's questions and I ask the Deputy to be brief.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: Merely because the Taoiseach dealt in good faith with the political heads in Downing Street and Stormont does not mean there is no cause for concern about some of the matters that have been raised here. The Taoiseach has told us that a different order of inquiry would, in his opinion, be unlikely to elicit a greater extent of co-operation from the British authorities. Does the Taoiseach...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Bertie Ahern: This was a call made by the justices, based on the information supplied by those who responded to them. They spent several years on this and I am sure they interviewed as many people as they could. I cannot say what information or evidence Mr. Donlon would have had. However, it was open to people to submit statements and many did so. Even people living abroad who were not interviewed...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: While I know the Taoiseach opposed the war last year, he does not have a great record on this.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Bertie Ahern: I opposed the war last year. MI5 or MI6 information would have nothing to do with Northern Ireland. We do not talk to MI5 or MI6 and I do not have any great information on them. The Deputy asked about the international element of the inquiry and by and large we were satisfied with the arrangements for the Bloody Sunday inquiry. From the Government's perspective, the Justice Cory inquiry has...