Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to all of the relatives and survivors. Their struggle, determination and resilience is incredibly inspiring against the backdrop of experiencing such horrific tragedy and trauma, faced with a State determined to cover up what happened and block the struggle for the truth. In the face of them and their loved ones being slandered and lied about, they just kept going. In the face of obstacle after obstacle, no justice here and no justice there, and one door after another closed to them, they just kept going. It is really remarkable and inspiring. Exactly as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, it is only because of the families and their struggle that we are here today and have an acknowledgement of the truth they have been fighting to expose.

It is obviously completely right, proper and appropriate that we have this State apology today. However, it is worth asking how this happened and why families were forced to fight for the truth for 43 years. It was not an accident. The State did not just fail the families by not listening enough, by not moving quickly enough, and by the normal wheels of justice not operating because something happened. It is worse than that. The State engaged in a cover-up to deny the truth, to protect the powerful and those responsible, and to blame the victims. That is what happened.

At the root of it, as has been said, is greed. The essence of this horrific tragedy is the greed of people who wanted to make as much money as they possibly could, without regard for fire regulations or people's lives. Therefore, they blocked or locked the exits to stop people getting in without paying, did not pay for fire safety training for staff, and used the infamous carpet tiles on the walls because they were cheaper, regardless of the fact that a fire would spread quicker as a result. It was about money. The people who did that were rich and politically connected, whereas those who were victims were overwhelmingly working-class young people.

The machinery of the State then moved into action not to do what it is meant to do, which is to deliver justice to people, but to protect injustice and spread a lie about the families and their relatives. That is what the Keane report is about. There is no other way that it makes sense for him to write, "the evidence of a motive for a deliberate act of arson on the premises remains tenuous", and go on in those terms, yet also find that the more probable cause was arson. This was part of a cover-up, slander and lie against the families. The obscenity that resulted was that those who originally profited from the tragedy again profited from that ridiculous finding, which had no basis in fact, to the tune of £580,000. It is absolutely obscene.

As mentioned, those who tried to tell the truth were silenced. It is incredible. The words of the song Christy Moore sang only say we do not know how the fire started. It was said that was contempt of court because people wanted to tell the lie that working-class young people started the fire, and that it could have been started by any one of the victims or any one of the survivors. Incredibly, Christy Moore was found to be in contempt of court simply for saying we did not know how the fire started.

We have to acknowledge we now have acknowledgement that there was unlawful killing, but those who did the unlawful killing must be brought to justice. That is the next step.

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