The Taoiseach yesterday renewed a call on the British government "to meet its responsibilities to co-operate with inquiries in this State and to help the process of uncovering the truth about what happened" in atrocities linked with the North.
Bertie Ahern was opening a two-day Dáil debate on the report of the Justice Committee into murders, including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974, as well as attacks in Dundalk and the Border region in the 1970s, based on Judge Barron's reports.
He said "the question of collusion between the security forces and terrorists in perpetrating these attacks has always been a central unanswered question".
The "willingness of the British authorities to co-operate with the various inquiries has been tested and in many cases found wanting".
He pointed out that more than 3,700 people lost their lives during the Troubles and more than 40,000 were injured.
He said nobody had a monopoly on victimhood and "when we speak of collusion, it is also essential to remember that many members of the security forces and their families underwent terrible pain and suffering arising from the conflict".
A number of inquiries had been established by the State. "This has been a long and difficult journey . . . we now have much more information about who was responsible for these attacks. We know more about the circumstances in which the attacks were carried out."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on the Taoiseach's officials to renew contacts with the office of British prime minister Gordon Brown on this issue and for "this House to renew the call for the investigation and the evidence of collusion between security forces and terrorists being sorted out".
"There are people out there who know the answers to the questions that these families seek. There is evidence on files in the archives in Britain that I'm quite sure would lead to much greater information being made available that could lead to the perpetrators of these murders" being brought to justice.
Labour European affairs spokesman Joe Costello echoed those views, and said that "the seriousness of the collusion warrants direction from the Oireachtas" to achieve a result in dealing with the issue.
He said that "more than 30 years after these atrocities, the trauma was compounded by the insensitive way many of them were treated by the agencies of the State, and by the failure of the State to vindicate their rights as citizens of this country under our Constitution".
