The principal suspects for the Dublin/Monaghan bombings were loyalist extremists who lived in Northern Ireland, but the Garda had had no evidence to extradite anybody, the Garda Commissioner said yesterday.
Making a submission to the Oireachtas sub-committee on the Barron report, the commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy, said: "It is a matter of regret to me as the current commissioner that, despite the best efforts of the investigators charged with responsibility for investigating these atrocities, no person was made amenable to the criminal courts of this jurisdiction."
He said there was no solid evidence to connect any of the suspects to the bombings to this date, especially when it involved a different jurisdiction.
"We didn't have evidence to extradite anybody. We just didn't have it, and that is as it is. I would like to tell you something different today, but I can't."
About missing documents referred to in the Barron report, he said over 800 files were given to Mr Justice Barron. He accepted some of the files were missing. "I'm satisfied that that would not in any way hinder a successful investigation if it was the case that we got evidence to prosecute somebody now."
He said if similar atrocities happpened today, certain aspects of the investigation would differ significantly from 1974, i.e. in co-operation between the Garda and the PSNI, Garda forensics, DNA, and EU protocols on exchanges of intelligence.
The chief-of-staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Colm Mangan, said in relation to the Defence Forces providing support to the Garda in the lead-up to and in the aftermath of the bombings, he was not aware of any shortcoming.
Mr Michael O'Donoghue, assistant general secretary at the Department of Defence, said there were no files in the Department in relation to the bombings.
Mr David Craig, director of National Archives, said missing Department of Justice records may have been segregated because of sensitive material and stored somewhere.