Bombings report expected in week

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The final report into aspects of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings is expected next week, the Irish prime minister has said.

The report is partly into the Irish police investigation of the attacks, which killed 33, and missing Department of Justice files from the time.

Taoseach Bertie Ahern told the Irish parliament, the Dail, he expected to receive the report next Tuesday.

Mr Ahern said it was clear important new information had been uncovered.

Mr Ahern said he could not say when the final report will be published because there could be legal issues arising from it.

A commission headed by Patick MacEntee - one of the Irish Republic's leading barristers - has been investigating the attacks since 2005.

No-one has ever been convicted of the attacks on 17 May 1974, which injured more than 250. It was the biggest loss of life on a single day in the Troubles.

Twenty-six people were killed in Dublin, and 90 minutes later seven died in a bombing in the town of Monaghan. One of the Dublin dead was a pregnant woman.

The loyalist paramilitary group the UVF admitted the atrocities - which took place while loyalist workers held a general strike in Northern Ireland to bring down the power-sharing government set up under the Sunningdale Agreement.

A 2003 report by Mr Justice Henry Barron said there were grounds for suspecting the bombers may have had help from members of the British security forces, but there was no conclusive proof.