British prime minister David Cameron offered assurances he would “say what needed to be said” about Bloody Sunday before knowing the contents of the Saville Report, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Former SDLP leader Mark Durkan, an MP and MLA, said Mr Cameron also revealed he would call the city "Derry" a week before he delivered his House of Commons statement in June.
"He had assured me that whatever was said in the report, he would say what needed to be said as British prime minister, and he also said he would say the word…he would say 'Derry' as well," Mr Durkan said.
British leaders normally refer to the city as Londonderry, which Mr Cameron also did in his address.
"We need to remember that David Cameron's statement only has the currency it has precisely because it is based on the clear verdicts on the behaviour of the soldiers that came out of the Saville Inquiry," Mr Durkan added.
Relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims today appeared before the committee on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in Leinster House.
They were Michael McKinney, Gerry Duddy and John Kelly, who all lost brothers on Bloody Sunday, and Tony Doherty, whose father was shot.
Fourteen people died as a result of shooting by the British Parachute Regiment in Derry's Bogside on January 30th, 1972.
