THE Government's file of evidence on the Bloody Sunday killings, which contains "serious and persuasive" information, is "moving forward very well" and probably warrants a further full inquiry, the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, has said.
Rejecting Fianna Fail criticism that he is adopting a "softly softly approach" to the British government over Bloody Sunday, he insisted in the Dail yesterday that the Government should not present the issue "in an antagonistic way" as this could prove counterproductive in its purpose.
Asked if the Government was the only one assembling evidence on this matter, Mr Bruton confirmed that the British government was also conducting its own "assessment" of the information on the 1972 killings. There was "cooperation between the Irish and British governments in regard to this matter in an ongoing operational way", he added. The Government's first priority was to get the "full truth" of what happened in Derry. This, it appeared, did not happen in the Widgery Tribunal.
Pressed by the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Ahern, on whether he was in a position to state unequivocally that the Government was seeking afresh tribunal, the
Taoiseach said one possibility might be a judicial review of the findings of Widgery in the light of the new evidence. Another option was that the British authorities would state unequivocally that they accepted the new evidence without further inquiry.
While it was probable that a new inquiry would be necessary, he, along with members of the House and the people of Ireland, were concerned at getting to the truth as quickly as possible.
Insisting that the only real way to deal with the matter was by way of a full judicial inquiry, Mr Ahern said the only way to prevent such events happening again was for the Government to clearly press for such an investigation.
While Mr Ahern "may be right", Mr Bruton replied that he would prefer, before making a final formal statement on this matter, to see all the evidence. "It is important, when the Irish Government presents evidence to the British government, that it is not open to the British government to say that we had already made up our minds on what course of action should be taken and that the evidence is simply being assembled to bolster a decision we have already made," Mr Bruton said. This was the best course of action, he claimed, in spite of an attack from Dr Jim McDaid of Fianna Fail that it appeared the "softly softly approach adopted by the Taoiseach, that we should not disturb the Brits at any cost, is not working".