Was it really necessary?

Yesterday saw the publication of the report of Lord Saville's enquiry into Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday is the name given to 30 January 1972 when a civil rights march in Derry (Londonderry) ended with 14 marchers, all of them civilians, shot dead by the army. It was back in 1998 that the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, asked Lord Saville plus a Canadian judge and an Australian judge to investigate the events of that day, this being the second investigation. It has taken the noble Lord and their Honours no less than 12 years to complete their enquiry - at a cost (as of 3 months ago) of £190 million. So the enquiry only started 26 years after the event and the report has now been published 38 years after.

While I don't deny the terrible nature of what happened, I do have to wonder about the relevance of a report produced so long after and at such enormous expense.