Public record corrected to state there is no evidence fire deliberate

STARDUST TRAGEDY:THE GOVERNMENT last night formally corrected the public record to state there is no evidence the Stardust fire almost 29 years ago was started deliberately and the cause of the fire is unknown.

In a motion about the fire in which 48 young people died and another 148 were seriously injured at the Stardust disco in Artane, north Dublin, on the night of February 13th, 1981, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said the Dáil “acknowledges that the cause of the fire is unknown, the original finding of arson is a mere hypothetical explanation and is not demonstrated by any evidence and that none of the persons present on the night of the fire can be held responsible for it”.

Members of the Stardust Victims’ Committee were in the public gallery for the debate, which confirms the intention to establish a committee to monitor the counselling and medical needs of the survivors and bereaved.

Mr Ahern said “the primary purpose of this motion is to acknowledge the original tribunal’s findings concerning the absence of evidence and to put this on the public record as recommended” by the report of Paul Coffey SC. The Government “wishes to acknowledge that as a matter of fact the actual cause of the catastrophic fire at the Stardust on February 14th, 1981, is unknown. None of the victims of the Stardust disaster or the persons present at the Stardust on the night of the fire can be held responsible for the fire.”

Terence Flanagan (FG, Dublin North-East) said the victims’ committee “fought a long and hard battle to get justice for the victims of this tragedy”.

Tommy Broughan (Labour, Dublin North-East) said the motion “is a vindication of the heroic and valiant nearly 28-year campaign on the part of the Stardust families to achieve some level of justice.”

Sinn Féin justice spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said “the fact that family members had to stage a three-day sit-in outside Government Buildings last month in order to force Government movement on the publication of the latest report on the fire has been typical of their treatment”.