The Taoiseach's decision to defer a meeting with the families bereaved by the Stardust tragedy until mid-September was yesterday criticised by the Stardust Victims' Committee.
The committee had hoped to organise a meeting as a matter of urgency to discuss the possibility of exhuming the five unidentified victims of the 1981 fire tragedy and the contents of a new submission and pathologist report recently presented to the Government.
However, the Taoiseach has signalled that a meeting will not be possible until September 18th due to diary commitments and the need to carefully assess the contents of a comprehensive new submission.
A spokesman for the Taoiseach said Mr Ahern had been prepared to meet with the committee and families since the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. However, he said all invitations had been declined until the families' solicitor had made a presentation of evidence and the relevant Government authorities had time to consider it. "We received the submission in the second week of July and we need to properly assess it now because it is fairly comprehensive," he said. "Mid-September allows appropriate time for that. It took over five months for the submission to be prepared, so it's not unreasonable that time is needed to consider it."
Eugene Kelly, whose brother, Robert, was one of the 48 victims of the fire, said families were disappointed to learn that a meeting would not be possible for another two months. "We were under the impression he would see us as soon as the submission went in. Instead, we are listening to excuses now. It really makes my blood boil when I see him going off to Dublin matches . . . all we are asking for is an hour of his time," said Mr Kelly.
He added that a meeting with the Government would provide an opportunity to convey the hurt, confusion and disappointment experienced by bereaved families over the last 25 years. "My marriage broke up as a result of that fire. I had a nervous break down later on and had to spend two weeks in St Ita's," he said. "On Robert's coroner's report there's no cause of death. There's no verdict. He [ Mr Ahern] needs to wake up and see how it affected us and see that we are still carrying the scars."
A spokeswoman for the committee, Antoinette Keegan, said families were now fundraising in an effort to bring their case for a new inquiry to the European courts. "We feel belittled by this Government. They think that by putting us off until September our energies will burn out and we will just go away, but we are now preparing for the Government's probable rejection of our submission and we are determined to go to Europe."