The State must initiate a “determined process” to make its records available to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, the North’s former police ombudsman has said.
Baroness Nuala O’Loan said she believed legislation was probably necessary “to enable the transmission of intelligence and information which the Republic holds” about the 1998 atrocity, in which 31 people, including unborn twins, died.
She also said it was her assessment the State would “need some sort of commission” which would “at the very least assist the working” of any UK body charged with investigating Troubles-era killings.
“There are very difficult jurisdictional issues to that, there are difficult political issues to that, but we have to be innovative and find new ways,” Ms O’Loan said.
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The peer was among a number of witnesses, including the North’s Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, and the head of investigative body Operation Kenova, Iain Livingstone, who appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster on Wednesday.
The group of MPs are currently examining the UK government’s approach to dealing with the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in view of its pledge to repeal the controversial legacy Act introduced by the previous administration.
The Irish Government recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Omagh inquiry – which is investigating whether the UK security services could have prevented the bombing – to allow it to access material held by the State, but some relatives and unionist politicians have said this does not go far enough and an independent, parallel inquiry is needed.
Ms O’Loan said she saw the agreement as “indicative of a will to assist”.
“There’s an awful lot of the crime which occurred actually occurred in planning terms in the Republic of Ireland, and an awful lot of information is held in the Republic of Ireland, and it’s a bit difficult to get that information out.
“I would have expected, and I said that the Republic should have established some sort of independent inquiry on Omagh to run parallel to our own inquiry, because there’s clear evidence that that bomb was planned down there.
“But this is repeated across many incidents in the Troubles [and] I think that there needs to be probably legislation in the South to enable to transmission of intelligence and information which the Republic holds,” she said.
Asked by the DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, if she believed “the Irish Government should be doing an awful lot more”, particularly in regard to the Omagh bombing, she replied, “I absolutely do.
“It would have been remiss of An Garda Síochána if they had not been gathering intelligence and information about the activities of terrorists, IRA people, particularly in the jurisdiction, and they were gathering such information, and it would be imperative that such information is shared.
“If we look at Omagh, for example, we know that the bomb which came to Omagh and exploded came up from the South.
“There’s been too much of a process by which assurances have been given that all information will be provided ... but then when you go back and ask for the information it’s not provided.
“I think there needs to be a really serious look in the Republic of Ireland – and I know how difficult it’s going to be, because I know the dynamics, the constructs, the contexts are difficult – but there actually does need to be a determined process through which the records in the Republic of Ireland are made available where necessary so that the Omagh bomb inquiry can do its work,” Ms O’Loan said.
