The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has rejected claims of deliberate delays in Government efforts to locate the remains of a Co Down man murdered in France 14 years ago and buried there.

Mr Seamus Ruddy, an INLA member from Newry, was working as an English teacher in France when he was killed in an internal INLA dispute. He was secretly buried at Rouen.

Mr O'Donoghue told Mr Tony Gregory (Ind, Dublin Central) who raised the issue following a report in The Irish Times, that the efforts to locate and recover the remains from another jurisdiction were "unavoidably complicated and time-consuming". He was hopeful of a "successful outcome" very shortly.