Taoiseach Must Display More Political Courage On Omagh Inquiry Than Enda Kenny – Mattie McGrath
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said he hopes that the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, will demonstrate more effective political support for the victims and families of the Omagh bomb massacre than his predecessor Enda Kenny. Deputy McGrath was speaking after it emerged that the families of the Omagh victims are set to sue PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton and are also seeking a judicial review against the United Kingdom’s government decision not to hold a public inquiry into the attack:
“Anything that advances the cause of justice for the victims and families of the horrific massacre at Omagh in 1998 is to be welcomed.
They have been pursuing a full Cross-Border Inquiry with the assistance of the Irish government for several years now, but unfortunately all the commitments given by the previous Taoiseach Enda Kenny amounted to absolutely nothing but empty rhetoric.
From 2013 I have worked with the families representatives to try and advance the matter but we just kept getting the departmental run-around.
In terms of the search for the full truth of what occurred in Omagh; as far back as the 2004 Fine Gael Ard-Fheis, Enda Kenny told the families representatives to their very faces that “any Government led by him must keep their word because that is the standard which should be set and which they should demand.”
Now, more than a 13 years later the Omagh families are still pursuing the current Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar and indeed the Minister for Justice, to effectively engage with the issues they compiled in the Bridger Report of 2013.
I would only say to Taoiseach Varadkar, that while our shared history on this island is dark enough, it does not need to be made worse by repeating hollow political commitments that advance us nowhere in terms of securing a brighter future.
He must do all that he can to publicly assist the families by bringing to a conclusion their long and painful journey toward legal justice” concluded Deputy McGrath.
