The DUP leader has called on the Irish Government to establish a public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing.
Gavin Robinson said that without one, “we will only get a partial picture” of what happened.
A total of 31 people, including unborn twins, were killed when a car bomb planted by the dissident republican group the Real IRA exploded in the centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15th, 1998.
An inquiry into the bombing, which opened at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh last year, was ordered by the UK government to examine whether the atrocity could reasonably have been prevented by British state authorities.
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It followed a High Court judgment in 2021 which found it was potentially plausible the bombing could have been prevented and recommended the UK government should carry out a human rights-compliant investigation into alleged security failures in the lead-up to the attack.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Mark Horner urged Ireland to establish its own investigation.
Instead, the Government has pledged to give its “full co-operation” with the UK inquiry, and said a mechanism will be found to allow it to provide information to the inquiry.
The inquiry expects to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Irish Government in March over the disclosure of potentially relevant material held by the State.
The inquiry, which will resume in June, has recently heard four weeks of emotional and harrowing testimony from victims’ families, survivors and first responders, who outlined the ongoing physical and mental trauma caused by the bombing.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Robinson said anyone who had listened to the inquiry “will know there is an earnest demand that families get access to truth, that they understand what happened, and of course those questions apply on both sides of the Border”.
“For me, there’s no longer more time required for honeyed words or solemn sorry, it’s time for the Irish Government to act,” Mr Robinson said.
“It’s time for the Taoiseach to recognise that his Government, that his State, have questions to answer, materials to provide, and individuals who may have eyewitness testimony, who may have direct involvement in intelligence that was available at the time, but the inquiry we have has no power to compel them.”
The DUP leader said he was “deeply fearful, and the families are too, that this process could conclude in the end with Lord [Alan] Turnbull saying, I couldn’t make an ultimate finding, because the Irish Government didn’t make information available, didn’t make witnesses available, and we couldn’t, to the full extent of legal provisions in our jurisdiction, establish the truth”.
“That would be an intolerable shame, and a shame that I believe no taoiseach or tánaiste could stand over,” Mr Robinson said.
