Madam,- I have seen the article in today's Irish Times headed "British find new files on 1974 bombs". It contains several inaccuracies. Amongst other things, this article states that "Recently, it emerged that the British Ministry of Defence ordered staff employed by it in 1974 not to co-operate with the Inquiry".
There appears to be a serious misunderstanding here.
I can confirm that at no time has the Ministry of Defence suggested that former or current employees should not contribute to the Barron Inquiry.
The Ministry of Defence responded in July on behalf of its members and former members to the Justice for the Forgotten group. This letter stated that the correct focus for any investigation into the Dublin-Monaghan atrocities was the Barron Inquiry.
And contrary to the impression conveyed in the article, the British Government remains fully committed to the Prime Minister's undertaking to respond as positively as possible to the Barron Inquiry.
To suggest that my Government is trying to frustrate the inquiry is a travesty. We have trawled through a vast number of files held in Whitehall Departments and agencies in an effort to find any information related to Justice Barron's request. To give you an idea of the scale of the task, the Northern Ireland Office alone has in the region of 68,000 registered files.
The UK authorities, specifically the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Service and the RUC (now the Police Service of Northern Ireland), have already supplied significant amounts of material to the Barron Inquiry. I am happy to confirm that the Government expects to be able to provide Mr Justice Barron with a substantive response to his further questions in the very near future.
I hope that this clarifies matters. - Yours, etc.,
Sir IVOR ROBERTS, KCMG Ambassador, British Embassy, Merrion Road, Dublin 4.