Tá mé fíor-bhuíoch don Cheann Comhairle as ucht an seans labhairt faoin ábhar tábhachtach agus dáiríre seo. Tá mé buíoch don Aire Gnóthaí Eachtracha agus Trádála as ucht bheith i láthair. Today, as we should know, is the 26th anniversary of the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. I knew Pat very well. He was my lawyer. I am sure the Minister, as a lawyer himself, understands this and that he was an excellent advocate for the rights of citizens who refused to be intimidated by threats from loyalists and the RUC. Pat believed in the law. He believed he could use the law to bring about people's rights, create a way forward and defend people. I wish to commend Pat's wife, Geraldine, and their family for their unwavering courage and diligence in pursuing their demand for a public inquiry all these years.
In 2001, there was a breakthrough when the British and Irish Governments agreed at Weston Park to invite Judge Peter Cory to examine four cases. Judge Cory concluded that four inquiries should be held. Three have taken place, including one by the Irish Government. However, the British Government has refused to honour its commitment. In October 2011, the British Prime Minister further disappointed the Finucane family by dismissing the having of an inquiry and instead appointing Desmond de Silva to review the case files. The de Silva report was published in December 2012 and it revealed a shocking scale of collusion by the British and Unionist paramilitaries. It serves to reinforce the need for an inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane. The de Silva report revealed that 85% of intelligence the UDA used to target people for murder originated from British army and RUC sources.
Agents working for MI5, RUC Special Branch and British Military Intelligence were participating in criminality, including murder. This issue was also considered extensively at British cabinet level. There was administrative and ministerial authority for these policies. It has been revealed that the director general of MI5 briefed Margaret Thatcher in 1988. This is all fact. The murder of Pat Finucane by state agents was not a one-off incident. It was the norm.
Collusion was a matter of institutional and administrative practice by successive British Governments and Lethal Allies by Anne Cadwallader should be necessary reading for every Teachta Dála in this House. She looks at the activities of one particular gang, the Glenanne gang. This practice involved the establishment of unionist paramilitary groups, the systematic infiltration by the British of all unionist death squads at the highest levels, the controlling and direction of these groups, their training, and they also provided them with information on people to be killed. This is based on a strategy developed by a man called Frank Kitson. He coined the phrase "counter-gangs". This is the set up of counter-gangs which was done in the North and other colonial places. They also helped to import weapons from the old South African apartheid regime, which killed hundreds of people. I do not have time to bring the House through the facts and detail of all of that.
The role of successive Irish Governments, not just this one, has not been as strategic or consistent as it could be. I spoke with Theresa Villiers, the British Secretary of State, by telephone today. Among other things, I raised this issue with her. I have raised it in this House and elsewhere countless times. The Taoiseach tells me, and I have no reason to disbelieve him, in fact I believe him, that he has raised this issue with the British Prime Minister. However, I am not satisfied he has done it with the conviction required. It is clear that Mr. Cameron will not willingly agree to a public inquiry. He ruled this out when I raised it with him in the company of the Taoiseach during the Stormont House talks. Incidentally, the Taoiseach remained silent during that conversation. It is therefore little wonder that the British Government behaves as it does.
I request the Government to go beyond the polite requests which are brushed aside. We need to develop a strategy to employ the full resources of our diplomatic service to raise this case with our international friends at every opportunity and to bring the case before the UN. I applaud the fact that the case of the guinea pigs, the hooded-men, is being taken to the European Court. We should raise this issue within the European Union and with our friends in the Government of the United States. Every available international forum should know the Irish Government wants this case dealt with.