The Government will receive the Barron report into the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in the next two weeks, it has emerged.
The report by Mr Justice Barron will address allegations that the British security services colluded with the UVF bombers who carried out the attacks in which 33 people lost their lives. The attacks remain the biggest unsolved crime in the history of the State with the worst single loss of life in the Troubles.
Mr Justice Barron declined yesterday to comment on the conclusions of his report. "It will be out pretty quickly," he said.
While the report was originally expected last October, the work was frustrated by a lack of co-operation from the British authorities. Separately, a report by retired Canadian supreme court judge Peter Cory on alleged collusion between some gardaí and the IRA is being scrutinised by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady.
Mr Justice Cory delivered his report to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last Tuesday.
It examines whether some gardaí were involved in the murders of Lord Justice and Lady Gibson in 1987 and in the murders in 1989 of two senior RUC officers, Supt Bob Buchanan and Insp Harry Breen.
The judge has also delivered a separate report to the British government which examines alleged collusion by the British security services in the murders of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright.
While the judge's conclusions about individual cases are not known, he suggested last week that public inquiries would be required if there was to be confidence that the possibility of collusion was not being ignored.
"Sometimes myths and legends grow up. It's important they be shown to be false.
"Sometimes you can only do that with public inquiries and exploring what has happened," he said.
A spokesman for Mr McDowell said he would make a statement to the Dáil "in the next few weeks" on a report investigating allegations that some gardaí withheld information from police in the North which could have helped to prevent the Omagh bombing in August 1998.
The report was produced by a three-man committee, chaired by the former secretary to the government, Mr Dermot Nally.
