Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the call for a public inquiry into this murder. As a member of the legal profession, I know that one of the roles in acting is to ensure that while the role of the people employed by the state, whether it is the police or the army, is to uphold the law from the point of view of the state, the role of the solicitor is to ensure that the state, itself, is upholding the law in the way it deals with prosecutions and in the way it deals with the arrest and charging of people for an alleged crime. The reality is that someone signed a death warrant for Mr. Pat Finucane. As a member of the legal profession, I find it appalling that this happened to someone who was acting in upholding that the state complied with all the legislation relating to prosecutions and making sure the courts acted in a proper manner in dealing with those prosecutions. It is outrageous that this occurred and that we do not have an open and public inquiry on the matter. I fully support the Government's demands. It should continue to demand that inquiry until it is held in a proper manner.

We are about to take up the Presidency of the European Union. Since I became a Member of this House I have frequently mentioned our role in the European Union. The Leader has indicated that there will be certain changes over the coming six months because of our Presidency. The European Commission has just published its programme for 2013. I suggest that we pick a number of items from that programme and have a debate on at least five or six of them so that we know what is planned for the next few years. I ask that the Leader bring forward that as part of the programme for us in this House in 2013.