Relatives of victims of loyalist bombs planted in the Republic during the 1970s complained yesterday that their welfare had been ignored by the State for 30 years.
They were attending a press conference at which the details of the fourth and final report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into allegations of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and British security forces in the bombings was published.
The report by Mr Justice Henry Barron into the bombing of Kay's Tavern in Dundalk in 1975, in which two people were killed, found that allegations of collusion were impossible to prove or disprove.
The report was published after it was referred to a subcommittee of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Defence chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ardagh.
The subcommittee will now consider all four Barron reports along with the continuing investigation into collusion being conducted by Patrick MacEntee SC. Public hearings into the findings of all reports will take place in the autumn.
Some of the relatives of the victims who attended the press conference at Leinster House for the publication of the latest report, which refers to a number of other incidents as well as the Dundalk bombing, yesterday expressed their unhappiness at the way they have been treated by the authorities over the years.
"We have been given so little respect over the past 30 years," said Margaret English from Dundalk, whose father, Hugh Waters, was murdered in the Kay's Tavern bombing.
She said that the relatives were told only yesterday about the publication of the report and an elderly relative of one of the victims was unable to come to Dublin because no transport was provided. "Why was she not provided with a car? The bombers were treated better than we were," said Ms English.
Mr Ardagh assured the relatives that at the subcommittee hearings in the autumn they would get a full hearing and he also promised to look into ways of ensuring that all the relatives who wished to attend were given the opportunity of doing so.
The Barron report into the Kay's Tavern bombing concluded that it was carried out by loyalist extremists but was unable to identify those involved. It found an implication that some members of the security forces in the North may or should have known who was responsible for the Dundalk attacks but added that without proof as to the identities of those involved, allegations of collusion were impossible to prove or disprove.
In the aftermath of the attack the Garda investigation was unable to find sufficient evidence to charge anybody. The report said that the nature of the explosives used suggested a possible link with the perpetrators of the bombings in Dublin, Monaghan and Castleblayney.
