Brian Stack murder: Kenny claims Adams knows more than he’s stated

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the statement given to the Dáil by Gerry Adams on the murder of prison officer Brian Stack was incomplete.

Mr Kenny said he should give an Garda Siochana the name of the person who drove the Stack brothers to meet a senior IRA official in 2013.

Mr Kenny said Mr Adams knows more than he has stated and must now should now “own up”.

The Taoiseach told RTÉ’s Six One news: “The Stack family lost their father and their husband. He was murdered in cold blood. He died from those injuries.”

In response to Mr Kenny’s remarks on Thursday evening, Mr Adams released a statement, asking “why has the Taoiseach waited until now to make this call when a process was agreed between me and Austin and Oliver Stack that culminated in a meeting between the Stack brothers and a former IRA leader in 2013? At that time the Stack family thanked me for my work on their behalf.

“We agreed before meeting that it would be on a confidential basis, and the issue was not raised again until the general election three years later. It has been raised again now as a result of the Fianna Fáil leader and the Taoiseach trying to exploit victims in the name of scurrilous political point scoring.

“The process the Stacks and I put in place was on the basis of trust in the absence of a proper truth recovery process. If the Taoiseach wants to assist victims he could focus his energy on assisting in establishing such a process, which Sinn Féin has consistently called for. That is the only viable way for families to achieve justice.”

Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin has said Sinn Féin cannot become a fully parliamentary party while Mr Adams refuses to pass on information on IRA crimes.

In a response to Mr Adams’s Dáil statement on his engagement with Austin Stack and his family in their efforts to find out who killed his father, Mr Howlin dismissed the account given by the Sinn Féin leader.

“With the reality of his grim past, he quite often tries to blow smoke and present himself as a victim,” said Mr Howlin. “Those of us who have met with the Stack family believe them. They are quite entitled to be told the truth.

“It’s quite clear that Gerry Adams knows the identity of the IRA commander who he tasked with investigating the facts surrounding the murder of Brian Stack. I believe he knows the identity of the murderer and he should bring that to the attention of the Garda Síochána.

Mr Howlin said Mr Adams was the leader of a significant party in Dáil Éireann.

“He now has an obligation to tell the full facts he knows in relation to this murder,” he said.