Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and support the motion. Despite the present difficulties in the peace process, it is good to see the Irish Government carrying out one of its obligations under the Weston Park agreement. I was present at Weston Park as a member of the Irish delegation and remember being present at many of the discussions.

I think a concern for balance was at issue. It was felt that the three most serious cases of allegations concerning deaths of people from the Nationalist community should be balanced by similar treatment of cases involving people from the Unionist, or in one case loyalist, side. I am confident the Minister will ensure that both the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and all branches of the Garda will give their full and total co-operation to this inquiry and that nothing will be withheld on grounds of national security, which obviously can cover a multitude. I hope that as far as the State is concerned, this inquiry will prove to be a model of how a state should co-operate when there is a question of involvement of one of its servants in collusion and terrorism.

The Minister described in graphic detail the two murders that are the subject matter of the present inquiry. Although it is difficult to describe them as anything but murders, there has been some debate on this issue. Recently, I attended a debate organised by Sinn Féin about politics and criminality. I do not necessarily preclude an act, because it has been politically motivated, from being criminal and spent most of my time arguing and explaining that point. However, a particular dimension to the Breen and Buchanan murders is that they were in Dundalk at our invitation to co-operate on matters of mutual concern. Even in 1982, when political relations between the two Governments were extremely poor, co-operation continued because it was vital to the safety of the people of this State and of Northern Ireland.

At the Sinn Féin meeting I attended recently, I was asked what was the point of this inquiry given that the IRA had declared and accepted responsibility for the attack and consequently, there was no mystery as to who, in general terms, had carried it out. I replied that the issue was not who was responsible but whether there was collusion. Collusion, when it relates to Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson or others is an issue of major concern on which Gerry Adams and other republican leaders have been extremely vocal and eloquent over many years. However, I got the distinct impression that as far as the questioner was concerned, as this incident allegedly involved republicans and one of our security forces, this sort of collusion was scarcely worth an inquiry.

We must be absolutely rigorous. If we are demanding rigorous and searching inquiries into collusion between British or Northern Ireland security forces and loyalists in the carrying out or assisting in carrying out of acts of terrorism, we must be equally rigorous with allegations of collusion between the IRA and servants of this State. One cannot have a particular attitude to one occurrence and a different attitude to another.