Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

On this day 26 years ago one of the worst disasters struck our country. I refer to the Stardust disaster when 48 young people lost their lives and more than 200 people were injured. As the Leader of the House will be aware, the Government has been coming under pressure from the families of the victims for quite some time to bring all of these matters to a conclusion in respect of new evidence that has been brought to public attention in recent years about the unsafe findings of the original tribunal of investigation in 1982 by Mr. Justice Ronan Keane as he was then known. I ask the Leader of the House to provide time for statements on this matter.

The Taoiseach has been very helpful in trying to bring all of these issues to a conclusion and he has stated publicly that he awaits to see the assessment made by independent counsel before he makes a decision on a further inquiry. That is a fair position to take, but it need not be another tribunal of investigation. A commission of investigation which would assess the new forensic information that has come to light in recent years could be very beneficial in trying to bring closure to all of these matters for the families involved.

We owe it to the families involved because the State has dealt with them appallingly over the past 26 years, with cases where three unidentified persons were in one unmarked grave and the wrong people were in another grave. We really have an obligation to get this right. On a co-operative basis we can get this right by working together and agreeing a final inquiry which will bring closure. I would encourage the Leader, if at all possible, to provide time for such a debate.

On a second issue, I heard this morning the comments made by the eminent Mr. Michael O'Higgins SC on the latest raft of measures announced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell. The Tánaiste now wants to do over the next ten weeks what he has singularly failed to do over the past ten years.

In the light of the Tánaiste's remarks yesterday giving us minions beneath him advice about cheap publicity in the run-up to the election, could I advise him that we be given less of the cheap publicity, less of the attempt to rescue his party from the percentage support for which it is on the margin of error at present——