As the Taoiseach is going to London this morning to meet the British Prime Minister and will not be here for the Order of Business today or in the House tomorrow, perhaps I could be given the liberty to express the hope that his discussions with the Prime Minister and the parties are successful and will bear fruit. On a personal basis I wish him all the best for the festive season and hope he is prepared for the enormous challenge of the Presidency on 1 January.

Taking into account that recent events have taught us that the victims of terrorism and their families must come first on issues such as the atrocity of the Omagh bomb, which left 31 innocent people dead, and that those elected to this House are in a privileged position to use authority legitimately to help people, the Taoiseach will appreciate that on a number of occasions during the past six weeks, he gave an indication to the House, endorsed by the Tánaiste last Thursday, that the Nally report would be published in some form or other. Having been given a copy of the report by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, for which I am grateful, and having read it, there are elements of it that should not be let into the public domain. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has said an edited version would be meaningless. In that case, and as it is the season of goodwill, will the Taoiseach give an undertaking that he and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will sit down with the families of the victims of the Omagh bomb and explain to them the elements of the Nally report they can explain to them and, at least, give them that comfort and a sense of interest in understanding the depth of grief these families still experience? In the event that the commitment given is not being honoured in terms of publication of the report in edited form, will the Taoiseach give that undertaking now in the season of goodwill?

I thank Deputy Kenny for his remarks and wish him and his colleagues season's greetings.

I did say previously that we would try to publish the report in some form. As the House is aware there was a considerable legal examination of the report to see precisely how we could deal with the matter. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform made a statement last night in so far as he could go. He stated that due to legal constraints and on national security grounds he could only go so far in his statement. Deputy Kenny has asked that we give as much information as we can to the relatives committee, which the Minister met previously. I will discuss that with the Minister to see how best we can do it.

As regards all of these reports, personally I would rather give everything but that is not possible, and it is totally impossible in this case. I will discuss the matter with the Minister. One way or another we will have contact again with the relatives but we need to work out legally what we can give them. Certainly we will do that. However, there are large parts of the report we cannot give and that has been very clear to me. That was the reason for the delay in implementing the report, not that they would see any details that would assist them in any way, but just on grounds of national security. I will look seriously at the Deputy's suggestion.

I thank the Taoiseach for that. I hope it will be possible for him to give the relatives information that does not breach national security, for their own comfort so they may get at the truth. My understanding is that the Northern Ireland ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, was given an undertaking that the group would go back to her before the report was finished, as it was on the basis of her information, intelligence and evidence given to the Government that the Nally report was commissioned in the first instance. Will the Taoiseach confirm whether or not that undertaking was given and, if so, why it was not honoured?

There are two central issues in the Nally report that do not leave it as a fully finished document. The person central to the entire report, known as the informant, was not questioned and when questions were submitted to him, through his legal adviser, they were not answered. There is also a divergence of opinion on the intelligence level and information available to the PSNI and the Garda Síochána in respect of certain aspects of the Omagh bombing. In order to move this forward, does the Taoiseach consider the group should re-examine these two issues or, as they are not professional investigators, could consideration be given to bringing in a professional investigator of international repute to examine those two issues? This could possibly be done in advance of the matter being discussed further here in the new session, when there will be more complete statements and an opportunity for questions and answers.

I can answer the first matter. The second matter should be left to the debate in the House. The Deputy has correctly given the answer to the second part of his question. The individual concerned has, on legal advice, not co-operated with the group. We will leave that until the Minister deals with it in the new year.

The members of the group have confirmed that no undertaking was given to Mrs. Nuala O'Loan, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, that she would be contacted again about the report. In fact, the group made it clear to the ombudsman that its function was to report to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and nothing else. No undertaking was given in any form to return to the ombudsman.