Families of the victims of bombings accused the Department of Justice of allowing a veil of secrecy to fall over its files on the investigations.

Cormac O’Dulachain, a legal representative for the relatives said: “Recent inquiries carried out by Justice for the Forgotten have revealed an extensive range of Department of Justice files that have not been disclosed and our concern is there may be good reasons for the non-disclosure.

Mr O’Dulachain was addressing the public hearings before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice on the Barron Report into the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973.