Committee dissatisfied with Government response to Omagh report
8 April 2010 (updated on 22 April 2010)
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee today expresses deep dissatisfaction with, and disappointment at, the quality of the Government's response to the Committee's report 'The Omagh bombing: some remaining questions'.
- Report: The Omagh Bombing: Government response
- Report: The Omagh Bombing: some remaining questions
- Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
The Committee makes the following points:
- It is unreasonable for the Prime Minister again to refuse to allow the Committee Chairman access to the report by the Intelligence Services Commissioner, Sir Peter Gibson, on intercept intelligence relating to the Omagh bombing. The Committee repeats its request for the Chairman to read the report.
- The Government has failed to respond adequately to the Committee's concerns about the limits of Sir Peter's inquiry. Instead, the Government has sought to criticise a journalist for protecting his sources, which misses the Committee's point entirely.
- The Government appears to contradict itself over whether the Omagh bombing requires further inquiry and the Committee seeks clarification of its position.
Committee Chairman, Sir Patrick Cormack, commented:
"Although we are grateful to the Government for providing a response so quickly, we cannot overlook what we consider to be the serious deficiencies of this response.
"We are deeply disappointed that the Government has failed properly to address the recommendations in our report.
"We strongly urge our successor committee and the next Secretary of State to consider again the points made in our report."