Irish Independent Weds. March 3, 2004 Cabinet bypassed over bombings, says Keating  Bill Corcoran  A FORMER Cabinet minister has claimed that there was "a security  sub-committee" operating independently of the Cabinet when the Dublin and  Monaghan bombings occurred in 1974.  Former Minister for Industry and Commerce Justin Keating told members of  a Government committee yesterday that the Cabinet security sub-committee  operated with "too little" reference to the Government as a whole and  "people like me were bypassed".  Mr Keating told the committee members that when the May 17, 1974, attacks  occurred, matters of security were not a priority for him. Consequently,  he did not know who the members of the security committee were at the  time.  However, the former Labour minister told the seven-person Oireachtas  committee assessing the Barron inquiry into the attacks which claimed the  lives of 34 people that he was now aware who the members of that security  sub-committee were.  Although he would not divulge the names of the cabinet ministers who made  up the security sub-committee, he said that neither he nor the former  Foreign Affairs Minister Garret FitzGerald were members.  When asked by Deputy Joe Costello (Lab) if he could recollect if the  security sub-committee ever reported to the Cabinet on the incident, Mr  Keating said that he could not.  He said he did not know if the security sub-committee was formally  established, or when it was established, but "it functioned".  Mr Keating went on to say that the accusation which hurt the Government  of the day the most was that they did not show "due concern" in relation  to the atrocity, but he said he understood how the public could feel like  that.  "The Government was very concerned but didn't feel able to act in a very  resolute and determined way. But their reasons for not doing so were not  good enough to me. But to members of the security sub-committee they were  good reasons," he said.  When asked what those reasons were, Mr Keating said that in his opinion -  which he admitted was in the minority and was not provable - they  revolved around the issues of extradition and the levels of collusion  that existed on both sides of the border.  "There was collusion and I believe there were moments we didn't oppose  state terrorism as rigorously as we should have," he said.  He said when viewing the May 17 attacks, using the 1970s Arms Trial as a  backdrop, it was felt that if those suspected of carrying out the  bombings were extradited and put on trial, "so much would come out that  there would be an immense sense of outrage".  He added that a revelation of collusion between the British and the  loyalist terrorists who were suspected of carrying out the attacks would  have made the country ungovernable.  "I didn't share that opinion, but it was understandable," he maintained.  Last night former minister Patrick Cooney, who was Minister for Justice  at the time, said he had "no comment" to make "until I read the  evidence".