Bombings inquiry decision delayed

A group representing the survivors of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the relatives of those who died will hear in the next fortnight whether a public inquiry into the atrocity is to be established.

A decision had been expected on Wednesday but public hearings into the matter have been extended by almost a week to allow the Justice For The Forgotten group more time to put its case in favour of a public inquiry.

A sub-committee of the joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice has been hearing submissions on the bombings for the last six weeks. It will report to Government before the end of March on whether a public inquiry into the events of May 1974 would shed any more light on the atrocity than the Barron report published last December. Thirty-three people were killed in the bombs, which is the biggest unsolved murder in the history of the State.

Last week Justice For The Forgotten claimed that documents it had supplied to the committee had not been passed on to Mr Michael Collins SC and Mr Antonio Bueno QC, both of whom had been called as legal expert witnesses. As a result, the advice of the two lawyers did not "take any account" of the points raised by the group.

Following the complaint, the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr Sean Ardagh, agreed to recall the lawyers today when they will give their opinion in light of the group's points. The group's own lawyers will then make their final submissions on Wednesday.

Ms Margaret Urwin, secretary of the relatives' and survivors' group, said a number of key unanswered questions emerged from the Barron report and none of these had been answered in the last six weeks.