The Minister for Justice renewed his attacks on Sinn Féin during a debate on the Barron report into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Michael O'Regan reports.
Mr McDowell said that "some selective aspects of history" had been included in the debate. "The parts of this debate which were not excellent are where people have appeared to have clouded their mind and obtruded on to our consciousness some selective aspects of history which they want to make points about, while totally washing their hands of responsibility for other things which people very close to them did and which were on a scale equivalent to, in fact worse than, some of the atrocities we were talking about this evening."
Earlier, Mr Aengus O Snodaigh (SF, Dublin South Central) said that it was disgraceful that the families of the victims felt so let down by the Government that they felt it necessary to consider legal action against it over its failure to establish a public inquiry.
"I hope they take such a case and win so the Government will then be compelled to take the logical step of establishing an inquiry." He added that during Jack Lynch's time as Taoiseach up to 1973, and afterwards, British agents were very active in the State.
Mr McDowell said that following agreement reached between the British and Irish Governments at Weston Park in 2001, Judge Cory, a retired Canadian Supreme Court judge, was appointed to undertake a thorough investigation of allegations of collusion between British and Irish security forces and paramilitaries in six cases.
He added that the Government would consider a Cory-type inquiry into the bombings, but it "would be non-statutory and, thus, would not have powers beyond those available to Judge Barron".
Mr Paul McGrath (FG, Westmeath) outlined examples of the testimony given to the Oireachtas sub-committee which considered the issue.
"We went through the findings of the Barron report, the adequacy of the garda investigation, the missing documentation, the role and response of the government of the day and the composition of the bombs. We also had a huge number of submissions.
"On the perpetrators of the terrible crime which killed 34 people, we refer back to what was said in the report. Mr Justice Barron stated categorically that the inquiry was satisfied that the persons principally responsible for carrying out the bombing attacks on Dublin and Monaghan were loyalist paramilitaries.
This was the view of the security forces on both sides of the Border at the time and most of the information available to the inquiry pointed in that direction."
The Labour spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello, called on the Government to establish a commission of investigation into why the Garda investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings was wound down in 1974, and a further commission into why so many critical documents were missing from Garda and Department of Justice files.
"At the same time, the Taoiseach should seek the co-operation of the British Government for a public tribunal of inquiry to be based in Northern Ireland or Great Britain to inquire into the identity of the perpetrators of the bombings and into the issue of collusion between the bombers and the British security forces." Victims and survivors had been waiting 30 years for justice, he added.
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said that the term "fight against terrorism" was one heard from the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister, not to mention President Bush."However, such words ring hollow in the ears of relatives of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.