http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=4178415&p=4y7843x&n=4178507
Justice
Dept Rules Out Unsolved Murders Unit
27/09/2006
- 3:25:10 PM
A
special detective unit in the Republic to investigate
unsolved
murders during the Troubles was today ruled out by
the
Justice Department’s top official.
The
Historical Enquiries Team (HET) in the North is
currently
probing over 3,000 outstanding cases with a £30m
(€44.5m)
budget and 84 staff.
However
Justice Department secretary general Sean Aylward
today
told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that such a
similar
agency in the Republic would be a strain on
existing
Garda resources, and not a good idea.
Mr
Aylward today appeared before public hearings into the
Barron
Report into bombings and shootings which killed 18
people
and injured dozens of others.
The
senior civil servant said he didn’t think it was
practical
for a Historical Enquiries Team to be established
in
the Republic.
“The
scale of unsolved murder cases in
Northern Ireland
is
massive,”
the told committee members.
“I’m
not persuaded that setting up a similar team in the
South
would bring us any closure.
“It
would involve a significant diversion of human
resources
and garda resources away from ongoing activities
and
I would have a concern about that.
He
insisted that gardaí carried out regular reviews of
unsolved
cases.
“At
the moment our view would be that to set up a team here
would
not just be the right thing to do,” he added.
The
Oireachtas Committee today held the second of three
days
of public hearings into atrocities blamed on loyalist
paramilitaries
who acted with collusion from British
security
forces.
The
Justice for the Forgotten group representing victims
appeared
before the all-party body earlier today.
Set
up in January, the HET is looking at more than 3,250
murders
committed between the start of the Troubles in 1969
and
the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
So
far, at least 78 cases have been passed onto the
Northern
Ireland
Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan for
investigation
because of allegations of evidence of police
involvement.
Hand-picked
detectives are focusing on all unsolved murders
in
chronological order.
Officers
are collecting and assessing existing records and
exhibits
and probing further avenues which may yield new
evidence.
Mr
Aylward also told the committee that his department was
unable
to find crucial police investigation documents
missing
since the 1970s.
The
secretary general also blamed the Freedom of
Information
culture for officials not writing down
information
anymore.
“It
has brought about a change in the administrative
culture
as things are not put down on paper anymore,” he
told
committee members.
“It’s
a loss to history and to public administration.
“This
is an unfortunate side-effect of the Freedom of
Information
system.”
Committee
member Kathleen Lynch of the Labour Party said it
was
frustrating for gardaí that their investigations in the
1970s
hit a brick wall when they were referred into the
North.
“They
got so far and as soon as they went over the Border,
they
stopped,” she said.
The
incidents being discussed by the Committee include
bombings
in Dundalk,
Dublin
Airport
bombing and the
Miami
Showband
killings.
The
sub-committee is chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Sean Ardagh
and
comprises six other members of Dáil and Seánad.
Justice
for the Forgotten and the Pat Finucane Centre
believe
that it is now possible to make links between four
attacks
in the Republic in the two-year period from May
1974
to March 1976, which claimed the lives of 38 people.
The
hearings will continue at
Leinster
House on October 4.
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Revised: October 05, 2006
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