McEntee report criticises 'serious failure' of Gardaí

A official investigation into the biggest single act of mass murder in recent Irish history has today found no evidence that alleged British state collusion in the atrocity played a role the subsequent winding down of the Garda murder inquiry.

Releasing his long-awaited report on the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Patrick MacEntee SC said he uncovered a catalogue of failures by the Gardaí and the Department of Justice.

Missing files, lax procedures and evidence lost in the aftermath of the killing of 33 people thwarted the inquiry headed by up a leading criminal law barrister.

He said it was not possible to fully account for how many files were missing, lost or destroyed from the original Garda investigation.

While he could not confirm why the evidence was missing he refused to rule out unauthorised removal of the documents.

"The failure to account for security and intelligence material is a serious failure, which could have very grave consequences for individuals mentioned or implicated in such material," he said.

The probe could not substantiate one of the key concerns of the families of the victims that pressure was brought to bear on the Gardaí to dump the investigation just three months after it began.

"The commission is satisfied that there is no evidence available to it which is capable of establishing any connection between the collusion alleged and the 'winding down' of the Garda investigations into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he would be calling a full debate in the Dáil on the MacEntee report and on the issue of collusion during the Troubles.

"Mr MacEntee's report is a further step on the way to uncovering the truth of what happened on that terrible day in 1974 when so many people lost their lives or were injured," said Mr Ahern.

"The Government has considered the findings carefully.

"Although they relate to a difficult period in the past and it is clear that there have been very significant improvements in recent years, the findings with regard to shortcomings and omissions are a matter of serious concern.

"I have asked for a full review to be carried out of all systems and procedures in the relevant Government departments and agencies to ensure that the failures found by Mr MacEntee do not occur in future."

Mr Ahern said he had asked for that review to be submitted to Government within three months.

The 249-page report, which was delayed nine times, also criticised the Department of Justice’s handling of security and intelligence records.

While it was clear registered files from the Department's security division had gone missing it could not be established how many other records had been lost.

The Department's practice of keeping unregistered Garda files posed a serious threat to persons identified in the documents, it was found.

Mr MacEntee said the failure of gardaí to notice the absence of documents from its own files was just as disturbing as the fact they were missing.