Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I call for a debate on the report of the joint Oireachtas committee on the bombing of Kay's Tavern. It covers the issue of collusion in many of the atrocities which involved various agencies in Northern Ireland, not only the police and the military but also the Northern Ireland Office, the Secretary of State and the British Prime Minister's office. It is all well set out in that document. I do so rather than call for a debate on the MacEntee report.

We decided to await the MacEntee report before having a debate on Kay's Tavern. In fact, the report of the joint Oireachtas committee calls for a debate in each House. The MacEntee report adds very little to the information already known. The main questions put to the commission of investigation were as follows: Why was the Garda investigation into the largest mass murder in the history of this State wound down within two or three months and why did crucial evidence and files within the Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform go missing? We are no wiser today, two years after the commission of investigation, about the answers to those questions.

Many Members have expressed a wish to support the victims who want the truth. Following the historic events yesterday at Farmleigh, it behoves everybody to bring closure to our sad history, particularly our recent sad history. That can only be done if the British Government comes absolutely clean about its involvement and active participation, through its agents, in some of these terrible events.