Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Minister of State for his reply and for the work of the Government in raising these issues on a continual basis. I can only agree that the talks on parades, flags and dealing with the past have collapsed.

Much of that has to do with the fact that the British Government does not seem to be engaged on this issue now. It is not acceptable that David Cameron met the leader of Sinn Féin for only the first time after being in office for three years. That is not serious engagement in trying to resolve these issues. I thank the Minister of State for his reply.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said that the British Government will reflect on the issue. It is being implicated in mass murder, 34 people in one day. The Minister of State has attended the relevant events. The Taoiseach has a very strong view of what should be done about these bombings. If I had been accused, as the British Government has been, of implication in mass murder I would clear my name. I would give out all the files and say I have nothing to hide. If the British Government has nothing to hide why not give out the files. The research done by the Pat Finucane Centre in Dublin and Monaghan on the hooded men has found clear evidence that it is most likely implicated.

The hooded men are important. The use of enhanced interrogation techniques such as hooding, making people stand against a wall in stress positions for hours, subjecting them to white noise, sleep, food and water deprivation, are being used today. Democracies use them because the European Court of Human Rights said they did not have an adverse effect on those 14 citizens in Northern Ireland. The evidence the British Government withheld from the Irish Government and from the court shows quite clearly that it did. This country has an obligation to ensure that the record is set straight and that the countries using this technique stop and do not use the EU court ruling as justification for doing so.