Gibbons family `hurt' by dispute

The late minister for defence, Mr Jim Gibbons, is the victim of a campaign of character assassination through renewed allegations that he lied to the Arms Trial, his son declared last night.

During a special Seanad debate on Fine Gael demands for a wide-ranging inquiry, his son, Senator Jim Gibbons jnr, said his family had been deeply hurt by the controversy.

In particular, he bitterly condemned an RTE Prime Time interview with a member of the 1970 jury: "My family were appalled that RTE would use an anonymous person to level a charge of perjury against my father.

"The fact that that person was given carte blanche to blacken my father's name reinforces my belief that the programme is portraying an unfair perspective," Mr Gibbons jnr said in his first public statement.

The family are understood to be very unhappy with Mr Des O'Malley for failing to defend their father's reputation in the first part of a four-part TV documentary about Mr O'Malley's life.

Supporting calls for a full inquiry, Mr Gibbons jnr said: "I have no doubt in my mind that any inquiry will vindicate my total belief that my father did not perjure himself in 1970."

For now, however, he is prepared to wait until a review of papers held by the Department of Justice, the Garda Siochana and the Attorney General's Office is completed: "But I will be keeping a close eye on this."

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, told senators that this could take another two or three weeks. He said he had "an open mind" about whether a wider investigation should then be launched.

But he warned that the State could be sued for defamation if it releases some papers still held back on security grounds. "I think that we have to be conscious too of the danger that the Oireachtas or the Government might be seen as in some way trying to sponsor some sort of agreed version of the State's history," he said.