Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Leader for a debate as soon as possible on the report issued in November 2006 by the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk. For the benefit of Members who were not here in the last Seanad, this report dealt with not only the bombing of Kay's Tavern, but also with the bombing at Castleblayney, the Dublin Airport bombing, the gun and bomb attack at Donnelly's Bar in Silverbridge, the attack on the Reavey family, the attack on the Step Inn in Keady, the attack on the O'Dowd family, the atrocity at the Rock Bar in County Armagh, and the attack on the Miami Showband. In support of my call I will simply quote from the conclusions in chapter 7 of that report. Paragraph 182 states:

The Sub-Committee is left in no doubt that collusion between the British security forces and terrorists was behind many if not all of the atrocities that are considered in this report. We are horrified that persons who were employed by the British administration to preserve peace and to protect people were engaged in the creation of violence and the butchering of innocent victims.

The report also stated that finding the truth is essential to bring closure to the families involved. It continued:

The Sub-Committee is of the view that given that we are dealing with acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces, the British Government cannot legitimately refuse to co-operate with investigations and attempts to get to the truth.

Paragraph 192 states:

This report is our fourth and is the culmination of all of our work. The spectre of collusion was raised in our first report and we now have enough information to be fully satisfied, not only that it occurred, but that it was widespread. The seriousness of this warrants direction from the Oireachtas and we therefore recommend that there should be a full debate in both the Dáil and the Seanad on the issue of collusion since it is necessary for there to be greater political impetus to highlight the fact that it occurred and the facts of its scale and to identify measures to bring closure to the victims.

Our findings in that report also discovered that the British Government at prime-ministerial level was aware of many of the activities regarding collusion in the North. It behoves us——