Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the report of the Competition Authority in respect of the legal profession. It was long overdue. The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is taking some initiatives in this area. I call for a debate on that report early in the new year because the Law Society and the Bar Council are already circling their wagons with a view to rubbishing the report and avoiding its implementation. That would be a travesty. This is one sector that needs to be independently regulated and we should move in that direction.

I am disappointed the report on the bombing of Kay's Tavern by the sub-committee on the Barron report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights is not on the Order Paper. The suggestion was made during a debate last week that it might be postponed. I remind the House that the committee has called for a debate in this House and the Lower House to address the issues involved. The victims have been crying out for truth on these matters for 30 years. To assist them in their efforts to seek closure, I urge that the report, which recognises that this State has also failed the victims, is debated and that we do not compound their hurt by these Houses also failing the victims. I seek a debate at the earliest possible opportunity on this important and scandalous issue.