BARRON REPORT: The former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, has defended the 1974 government's handling of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, saying it was not for cabinet members of the day to press the British government to help catch the bombers, or to seek to influence the Garda investigation into the atrocities.
He added that the issue of collusion between the loyalist bombers and the British security forces never arose at government level at the time.
Dr FitzGerald was speaking at the second session of the Oireachtas joint subcommittee on justice's public hearings on the bombings, following the publication of Mr Justice Barron's report on them.
He rejected the report's criticism of the government at the time of the bombings. He said Mr Justice Barron had arrived at some of his conclusions because he did not understand the workings of government and did not appreciate the nature of the relationship between Dublin and Downing Street.
The subcommittee will report to the Government in March on whether a public tribunal of inquiry should be set up to investigate the bombings and allegations of collusion between the UVF and British security forces.
Thirty-three people were killed when three car-bombs exploded in Dublin city centre and one in Monaghan town.
The Barron report criticised the 1974 government for neglecting to follow up a reference by the then British prime minister, Mr Harold Wilson, that those responsible for the Dublin bombings had been "picked up", or interned.
Mr Wilson made his remarks at a British-Irish governmental meeting on November 21st, 1974.
Dr FitzGerald, who was minister for foreign affairs at the time, said Mr Wilson had made his comments in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of internment, which the Irish government was opposed to at the time.
"This was simply a try-on by Wilson ... he had his own particular angle," Dr FitzGerald said. Had he risen to the prime minister's baiting, the then Taoiseach, Mr Cosgrave, would, rightly, not have been pleased.
It later transpired that just two of the many suspects for the bombings had been detained.
Dr FitzGerald rejected criticism from Mr Justice Barron that the government should have been more proactive in checking the progress of the Garda investigation in the months after the atrocities. "There's a great sensitivity, or at least there should be, about politicians getting involved in the workings of the police. I was surprised Justice Barron thought that was a function of government."
The sharing of information between Britain and Ireland on individual cases was, and still is, always a matter for the gardaí and Army intelligence. It had always proven difficult to obtain information from the Department of Justice, which was always very "protective" of its role and that of the gardaí, he said.
On the suggestion that the British security forces colluded with the bombers, Dr Fitzgerald said: "I can recall [no suggestion of collusion\] at the time, even at the lower end. If I had such a suspicion I would have been minded to pursue it."
Mr Cormac O'Dúlacháin, a barrister acting for the Justice for the Forgotten group, said while the Barron investigation had gathered a wealth of information on the events surrounding the bombings, a public inquiry was needed to test that information. If such an inquiry were established it would encourage others with new information to come forward. He said that despite the identification of many suspects around Monaghan and in the North, none was ever interviewed by gardaí. Nothing was heard about one of the suspects until more than 25 years later, when he emerged as a witness at the Catherine Nevin murder trial.
He added it was vital that the lack of any follow-up of a "cluster" of suspects based near Monaghan should be explored in a public inquiry because this inaction had effectively scuppered the investigation into the Dublin bombs.
