Relatives' solicitor does not rule out Dublin bombings prosecutions

A legal representative of the Justice for the Forgotten group has told an Oireachtas sub-committee he would not rule out the possibility of prosecution for the perpetrators of the Dublin Monaghan bombings.

Mr Greg O'Neill, solicitor for the group representing relatives of those killed in the 1974 atrocities, said he knew there were individuals who could be identified who had been "amenable to arrest and interrogation by the gardaí" at the time of the bombings and still were.

Mr O'Neill was responding to a question from the chair of the committee, Fianna Fáil deputy Mr Seán Ardagh, who asked if he would now accept "no person will be charged or convicted".

"No, I won't rule out that possibility. There is still a moral and criminal complicity in this crime." However, he added: "I predict that because of Garda action or rather, inaction, and mismanagement we can make the assumption that it is unlikely, but I will not rule it out."

Making his final submission to the committee on the second last day of its hearings on the Barron report, Mr O'Neill said the State still had a duty to inquire into the bombings. The Garda investigation at the time had been a "shambles" and issues of British MI5 and MI6 collusion could not be used as a charter for the Garda and the State to allow those involved to escape punishment.

It would be "morally unacceptable", he added, for the Government to evoke the length of time that had passed as a reason for not holding an inquiry.

In his closing address, counsel for Justice for the Forgotten, Mr Cormac O'Dúlacháin, said the families were seeking, and the atrocity warranted, a full public tribunal of inquiry.

"In 50 or 60 years there has not been a graver issue in the State that warranted a tribunal than the Dublin Monaghan bombings."

The committee will hold its final day of hearings today. It will report to Government before the end of the month on whether a public inquiry should be held.