Survivors and families of those killed in the Omagh bomb have asked to be represented by a special advocate in closed hearings at the public inquiry.
Lord Turnbull, chairman of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, is hearing arguments around the applications during dedicated hearings this week.
The inquiry is investigating whether the 1998 dissident republican bomb attack could have been prevented.
Counsel to the inquiry Paul Greaney KC said the probe will hear some sensitive security evidence in closed hearings.
The atrocity in the Co Tyrone town on 15 August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
Speaking during hearings in Belfast on Monday, Greaney said the inquiry's legal team recognises that survivors and the bereaved have spent 25 years seeking the truth and that they may be "suspicious or even cynical of the UK state's willingness to engage in a way that is straightforward and wholehearted with this inquiry".
"We acknowledge too, that the idea of evidence being heard in circumstances in which the families and survivors will be excluded is one that they will find difficult to accept, to say the least, and accordingly, we regard it as entirely understandable that some, although not all, have suggested special advocates should be appointed to represent their interests in any closed hearings, and have made applications for that to occur," he said.
(PA/London) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
