§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what request he has received for assistance from the Irish Government's Independent Commission of Inquiry into the 1974 Dublin bombing; when the request was received; what his response was; and if he will make a statement. [20973]
§ Dr. John ReidAn initial request was received by my predecessor from Mr. Justice Barron on 21 November 2000 asking for assistance in his Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin, Monaghan and Dundalk bombings of 1974. All relevant Government Departments and agencies have been engaged in a comprehensive trawl of their files to establish what material may still be in existence. This has required an extremely time consuming manual trawl of a huge number of files.
I met Mr. Justice Barron on 17 January to update him on the matter and I hope to be able to respond substantively to his request in the near future.