THE Republic's minister for foreign affairs has criticised the British government for applying the "smothering blanket of national security" to justify the non disclosure of information relating to the Troubles.
Charlie Flanagan has also spoken of his frustration that a request for documents relating to the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings has come to nothing.
The minister was speaking to The Irish News on Thursday during his first visit to Belfast since last week's signing of the latest Stormont agreement.
While the 'Fresh Start' deal has several elements – including addressing paramilitarism and cross-border crime, putting the executive's finances on a firmer footing, and restructuring the devolved institutions – the two governments and five parties involved in the negotiations failed to get agreement on dealing with past.
Nationalists saw the British government's insistence on a 'national security' clause in the legacy legislation as the main inpediment to agreement.
Although Mr Flanagan declined to say he shared this point of view, he accepted that there was "real disappointment" among victims and survivors.
He said many matters relating to the Troubles' legacy had been agreed during the course of the 10-week negotiations but that they failed to get over the final hurdle.
"The issue that remains unresolved is the issue of disclosure and national security and I don't believe it's acceptable that the smothering blanket of national security should on all occasions be used in the manner you've seen in Northern Ireland over a number of years," he said.
"As a member of a sovereign government, of course I accept there will always be national security issues but we need to find a way around this and it behoves everybody to see how best we can deal with this final aspect of how vital information can be conveyed to families, victims, survivors and communities."
Mr Flanagan also voiced his frustration at the British government's failure to disclose documents it holds about the Dublin-Monaghan bombings in which 33 people died.
A report in 2003 by former Irish Supreme Court judge Henry Barron found grounds for suspecting the bombers may have been helped British security forces.
Last year the Irish government called on the British government to allow the documents it possessed to be assessed by an independent international judicial figure, howeever, to date the request has proved fruitless.
"I'm both disappointed and frustrated at the lack of engagement on the part of the British government to information we have sought on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, one of the most horrorific atrocities of the entire Troubles era," the minister said.
"I believe it's well beyond time now that documentation which is both appropriate and necessary should be forthcoming."
Meanwhile, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has called for the British government's legacy legislation to be made public.
In a platform in The Irish News on Friday, the Foyle MLA claims Sinn Féin "walked away from dealing with the past".
"It is telling they (Sinn Féin) have not called for the British government to publish the Bill – we have," he writes.
