ó Caoláin questions Taoiseach on Victims Commission

The report of the inquiry by Justice Barron into the bombing of Monaghan and Dublin in May 1974 is due to be completed early in 2003 but vital information has still not been handed over by the British government. This emerged when Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín ó Caoláin questioned Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Dáil last week. Ahern revealed that the government is to implement a number of the recommendations of the Victims Commission report by former Tánaiste and Cavan/Monaghan TD John Wilson.

Bertie Ahern confirmed to the Dáil that Justice Barron is also examining the Castleblayney bombing of 1976 in which Patrick Mone was killed, the murder of Séamus Ludlow in County Louth and the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973. ó Caoláin pointed out that we are less that two years away from the 30th anniversary of the Monaghan and Dublin atrocities: "We can only try to comprehend the anxiousness and the frustration of the families of the bereaved, which has been reflected repeatedly to me by people I know. I knew people who were killed in this tragic visitation on both communities. This is something of which we must take charge. The idea that the British authorities are continuing to withhold essential information from Mr Justice Barron's efforts to get to the full truth of what happened leading up to, on the day and subsequent to that tragic day in May 1974, is unacceptable."


Trust fund for victims


ó Caoláin asked the Taoiseach what action would be taken to the implement the Wilson Report on victims of the Troubles in the 26 Counties which was published in 1999.

Bertie Ahern replied that before the summer, the government agreed a range of measures recommended in the Wilson report, "including the assigning of a high-ranking official in my Department to advance and monitor the implementation of all the recommendations contained in the report". In addition, he said, the government had agreed, in principle, to the establishment of a trust fund to address the financial needs of the victims of the conflict in the Six Counties and their families in the 26 Counties.

He said a working group of officials from Departments are drawing up detailed proposals for the operation of the fund and expects to be in a position to report to government with legislative proposals, which will be required for the establishment of the trust, before Christmas. A final figure has not been put on the amount of money to be made available to the trust but, said Ahern, that will be necessary as part of the decision.

Since the Dublin and Monaghan bombings were last addressed in the Dáil, it has emerged that the British Ministry of Defence has issued a letter to its employees of the 1970s instructing them not to provide information to the families of the victims of the atrocities. ó Caoláin told the Dáil he believed the reason the directive was circulated is because "people who have a case to answer with regard to the events of May 1974 and other such atrocities visited on this jurisdiction are now senior members of the British military establishment".