Former members of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government should give testimony to next month's Oireachtas hearings into the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, the Tánaiste has said.
However, Ms Harney declined to issue a specific call to former Fine Gael taoiseach Mr Liam Cosgrave, now aged 83, to appear before the Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights Committee.
"I don't want to be specific to Liam Cosgrave. He is a retired, elderly man. But maybe it might be helpful if someone from that government were in a position to say something.
"I am sure they are giving serious consideration to the Barron Report. Remember those were very different days," she said, speaking to journalists before an engagement in Dublin.
The double bombing on May 17th, 1974, which killed 33 people including a pregnant woman, happened shortly before the Sunningdale power-sharing agreement collapsed.
"The relationship between the British and Irish governments was very different in the early 1970s to what it is today," she said.
"I'm sure that if some members of that government were in a position to do so, maybe they will be able to comment or participate. I am sure they would like to do that from their own point of view."
Everyone named in the report is to be asked to supply a written statement to the Oireachtas Committee by January 9th.
"I don't want to make this a partisan issue. It is far too important. The families of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings' victims have suffered too much already and the last thing we want is a political brawl here.
"I am not making any accusation against members of that government. Nor would I wish in any sense for people to form that opinion," the Progressive Democrat leader declared.
So far, members of the Fine Gael/Labour cabinet, including Dr Garret FitzGerald and Mr Paddy Cooney, have declined to offer any public reaction to Mr Justice Barron's criticisms.
He found that cabinet failed to press the Garda investigation and displayed "an apparent lack of interest" to act on information offered to ministers by the British in September 1974.
The files on the bombings held by the Department of Justice have been lost since the early 1990s, if not before, Mr Justice Barron said in his report, which was published on Wednesday.
"It is 29 years ago. Obviously a lot of records don't exist unfortunately and that is the real tragedy here that the records in the Department of Justice don't exist," said Ms Harney.
The Government, she said, would consider the request made by the Justice for the Forgotten group, which represents most of the families of the victims, for early publication of the 1974 State papers.
Under normal circumstances, they would not be available until January 1st, 2005.
