The British government reaffirmed its support for the Bloody Sunday inquiry last night after the Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, appeared to question its effectiveness.
Speaking during a Commons debate on a Liberal Democrat motion demanding a judicial inquiry into the government's handling of pre-war intelligence reports about Iraq's military capability, Mr Straw told MPs: "We sometimes make a mistake in investing quite the faith that we do in appointing a judicial figure to chair an inquiry of this kind."
Citing the satisfactory outcome of the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry, Mr Straw said: "But others, I have to say, take a very, very long time Witnesses perform, require lawyers and the whole thing can disappear the Bloody Sunday inquiry, which is now costing scores and scores of millions of pounds
"As I say, I've been partly responsible for the establishment of such inquiries and I think I can therefore say with some confidence that I don't believe they are necessarily a satisfactory basis."
In response to inquiries about Mr Straw's comments, 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office said the government had expressed concern a number of times about the cost of the Saville Inquiry. However, "that has in no way diminished our determination to find out the truth of what happened [on Bloody Sunday] and our support for the inquiry's attempts to do so".