Mr Jim Gibbons (PD) said he understood that military intelligence files were available in relation to the events surrounding the Arms Trial of 1970, but people had been threatened with being sued if they published them. "I think that is alarming. What type of State are we living in? Do we want to know the facts or do we only want to know some of the facts?"
Mr Gibbons, son of the former Fianna Fail minister who was an important witness in the Arms Trial, was contributing to the debate on the report by the Minister for Justice on allegations of an attempt to suppress evidence in the trial.
It concerned him, he said, that the report had disclosed that a number of documents were missing. He believed that a lot of archival information was not yet in the public domain.
Mr Gibbons referred to an undated memo from the military intelligence section relating to transfer of powers from Col Hefferon to Col Delaney. This stated that Col Hefferon said he had not told Col Delaney about Capt Kelly's activities, as he thought the minister should tell Col Delaney himself. "How could this be true, since Col Hefferon kept Col Delaney's existence in intelligence secret from the minister for defence from February 9th to April 8th? Col Delaney asked Col Hefferon many times during these two months to introduce him to the minister for defence. Col Hefferon did not do so until the day before he retired from the Army on April 8th, 1970."
Questions had to be asked about that, Mr Gibbons said.
Ms Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) said it was a travesty of justice that Mr Desmond O'Malley, who had been minister for justice 31 years ago, had been given just 10 minutes to make his case in the Dail. Mr O'Donoghue's report indicated that allegations that Col Hefferon's statement had been interfered with had not been borne out, but the report was only beginning to open up the debate.