Omagh victims to use inquiry to ‘heap shame' on Irish Government for its failings over the atrocity
The Irish government's commitment to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry has come under severe criticism from bereaved families and injured survivors.
On Tuesday, the inquiry was told that many families are "sick and tired" of false assurances and broken promises from Dublin.
Barrister Alan Kane KC delivered a statement on behalf of the families of Omagh victims represented by solicitor John McBurney.
These include the families of Debra-Anne Cartwright, Olive Hawkes, Julia Hughes, Philomena Skelton, Samantha McFarland, Alan Radford, Lorraine Wilson, who were all killed in the massacre, as well as several other people who were injured.
He told the inquiry: 'Our clients are of the clear belief that whatever aspects of preventability may lie at the door of the UK state authorities, blame, to a greater or lesser extent, rests with the state authorities in the Republic of Ireland.
'Our clients again renew their call for a parallel inquiry to be immediately established by the government of the Republic of Ireland, a call that they should not be required to repeat.
'Our clients remain greatly disappointed at the lack of any commitment of the authorities in the Republic of Ireland to meaningfully assist this inquiry.
'They regard the memorandum of understanding, agreed with the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Ireland as wholly unsatisfactory.
'Our clients wish to use this inquiry to heap shame on the Government of the Republic of Ireland for their failures.'
However, the Taoiseach has defended his government's approach, saying that it is fully committed to the inquiry.
Micheál Martin said: 'The difficulty with a parallel inquiry is you would have two inquiries going on at the same time into basically the same issues, and that could lead to a lot of duplication and delay.
'We're very, very clear of the need for our government and our Department of Justice, and others, to be fully open in terms of materials to be sent to the Omagh inquiry, and to co-operate fully with the Omagh inquiry.
'Certainly we are interested in (the inquiry), obviously, in terms of any potential future atrocities, and also to give justice to the families and some degree of closure, if that's possible, to the families who have fought long and hard for transparency on this issue.'
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