Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is looking for rationalisation of the maternity hospitals in the north west. That is clear from the report. By extension, this feeds into a national survey of maternity hospitals and my concern is our local hospital in Wexford. Over the years, there has been tremendous investment and it has a very good maternity unit. There have been discussions in the past and the unit was under threat. From this document, it looks like the agenda continues to be pursued and should be out in the open. The document should not be classified as a strictly confidential draft because the only reason for that is to conceal it from the public that will be affected by it. That is not how any Government should operate when it advocates for transparency but injects none into what it does. The Leader has promised a debate.

Can we have a debate on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings? On Saturday, the 40th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings will be commemorated. It was the single largest terrorist atrocity in the 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which affected here and the neighbouring island. At a subcommittee over a period of a few years, the Leader and I and six other sub-committee members were present at hearings and reports from victims and expert groups into what led to the atrocity and others. It was clear to us, as starkly reflected in our final report, that there was collusion at high levels from the British authorities in this bombing that killed 34 people, including one unborn child.

It is absolutely a sad reflection on the State that the victims must sue the British state in order to get access to the documents to get to the truth and be able to find some closure for all those affected by it. This was British state-sponsored terrorism and it should be condemned. How can anyone stand up in either Chamber and say that we can have normality in our relations with Britain while it continues to conceal the documents at the core of this? This went to the heart of Whitehall. The evidence we received make it obvious that people at a high political level were well aware of the dirty war being conducted and of the consequences of it. The report of Mr. Justice Barron says that he received co-operation from the RUC at the time of his investigation but all co-operation ceased when the Northern Ireland Office, which is politically led, took over from the RUC.