Seanad Report:Martin Mansergh (FF) said he had heard it at the highest level on the British side that the Pat Finucane murder was a can of worms.
The British government knew how awful this case was, and it was trying to soften the blow. That was not acceptable, and the Irish Government should use all diplomatic means to find a more satisfactory outcome.
Dr Mansergh was speaking on the motion to set up a tribunal to inquire into suggestions that members of the Garda or other State employees colluded in the murder by the IRA of RUC chief superintendent Harry Breen and superintendent Robert Buchanan in March 1989.
He said that if rigorous and searching inquiries were being demanded into collusion between British or Northern Irish security forces and loyalists, we must be equally rigorous over allegations of collusion between the IRA and servants of this State.
Jim Walsh (FF) said British failures over the Finucane and the Dublin and Monaghan bombing inquiries gave fodder to the recruitment of people by paramilitaries.