Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams should use his IRA contacts and help reveal those responsible for the bombing of pubs in Guildford, Surrey, in 1974.

Mr Kenny was responding in the Dáil today to Mr Adams, who paid tribute to the late Gerry Conlon, who had been wrongly jailed for the bombing.

He said Mr Adams would have had extensive contacts with IRA members over many years. “Some of those contacts will know exactly who was involved in Guildford and who was involved in Birmingham,’’ he added.

“Perhaps one legacy from the tragic past… is that those who know the truth, even after the death of Gerry Conlon, might come forward and say ‘We were responsible, we were guilty, we were under orders’.’’

Mr Kenny said that maybe Mr Adams did not himself know them, but contacts he had might know them.

When Mr Adams attempted to reply, Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett said he could not do so under the standing orders governing the order of business. Amid the exchanges with Mr Barrett, which were largely inaudible, Mr Adams said Mr Kenny was badly informed.