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Northern Ireland

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, whose services to Northern Ireland have been immense and which most recently have comprised serving as a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission. He has asked many pertinent questions of republican parties and paramilitaries, among others. There has been no shortage of questions. What have been absent, hitherto, are answers. I very much agree with what the noble Lord said about the urgent need for them. We all regard it as typical of the persistence and general wisdom of my noble friend Lady Park that so early in this Parliament she should have secured this debate. I congratulate her on that and, along with everybody else, thank her for it. I also, no less warmly, congratulate the Minister on his accession to this office, and I congratulate the people of Northern Ireland on it too, for the reasons that have been expressed. I add my thanks to the outgoing Secretary of State who took prodigious pains to keep many of us in this House in the picture about what the Government were trying to do. I thought that he did his job admirably and I greatly regret that he was moved. Before I reach the substance of the debate, perhaps I may say a few words about Mr David Trimble. However history may judge his overall influence on the politics of Northern Ireland and, indeed, of Ireland—I believe that he will be rated very highly—I should like to pay tribute today to the courage with which he took the risks associated with his remarkable vision. The problems of Northern Ireland—one might say its afflictions—are seen to be so intractable and of such duration that among a great many people living outside the Province a kind of ““concern fatigue”” has very dangerously set in. That allows the problems of Northern Ireland to slip down and even slip off people’s list of things to worry about. These have always been out of sight and increasingly they are out of mind. But, unfortunately, there are still plenty of things to worry about. If this kind of collective ennui were seen to affect the Government I think that the consequences would be very bad. To one of the principal causes, the IRA, but to loyalist paramilitaries as well, one may once more apply the notorious phrase, ““They have not gone away, you know””. For instance, as my noble friend Lady Park has reminded us, if you wish to help the police to investigate a paramilitary murder it is very probable that your life will be in danger. If you resist an exiling order that you should leave the Province within 24 hours, imposed upon you by a paramilitary organisation, your life will be in danger. If you seek to resist one of those criminal rackets in which the paramilitaries are increasingly engaged, again you will find your life at risk. All those things still go on, as we have been reminded. My noble friend referred us to the fifth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission. Its findings are set out in alarming detail. I refer to only one. It can be found at paragraph 2.11; that the IRA is recruiting and training new members in the use of guns and bombs, and gathering intelligence. Only nine months ago, 10,000 rounds of its ammunition were discovered by the police. It was ammunition intended for assault rifles and of a kind not previously known in Northern Ireland. The IRA has most certainly not gone away. When confronted with the earlier reports of the commission, through its political wing, Sinn Fein, it challenged the commission’s powers and activities by way of a judicial review. It claimed that the commission was not independent and that its reports were ultra vires. The High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland dismissed those claims. That did not deflect a senior Sinn Fein Member of the Assembly, Mr Alex Maskey, whom several of us remember well, from responding to that report by claiming that the commission was,"““the tool of British securocrats, created and used to discriminate against Sinn Fein and its electorate””." If that were true, we would find it rather surprising that the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, had retained his membership. I am slightly sorry that he restrained himself from commenting on that. A great many people were already deeply suspicious about where the leadership of Sinn Fein was really leading and what the influence of Sinn Fein’s leaders on the IRA was really leading to. This sort of reaction to the commission can only strengthen those suspicions. That is before account is taken of the widely reported assertions of the Irish Minister of Justice, Mr McDowell, that when Gerry Adams appeals to the IRA he is only talking to himself and that as an IRA leader still he would get what he called ““a shaving mirror response””. I wonder what the Government make of that. I dwell on those matters not because I think that any one of them, by itself, is conclusive but because they establish that there are many serious things indeed to worry about in Northern Ireland. They confront the new Secretary of State for whom, like everyone else, I wish only the best of success. He was right to say, in the light of the last report, that it was now necessary for the IRA to make it absolutely crystal clear that it would go out of the business of paramilitary activity and criminality. He was right to say that; he could scarcely have said anything less. He must now show that he means it. Here, I have a criticism—not of him, but of the Prime Minister. I am sure that it is not Mr Hain’s fault that, as the 14th Secretary of State since direct rule, he is the first to be required to look after Wales as well. I find it difficult to suppose that conditions in the Province and the current state of the peace process and political process justify the view that Northern Ireland no longer needs the undivided attention of the Secretary of State. I must confess that throughout my time, which lasted for five years, I always found it necessary to regard it as rather more than a full-time job—a marvellous job, certainly, but a fully demanding one. Two of the reasons were these: however long you stay there, there will always   be an immense amount to learn; and, secondly, as the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, has reflected, each successive Secretary of State in Northern Ireland is the subject of profound and multifarious suspicions. I was certainly no exception. Those suspicions often conflicted with each other, but unless they are credibly reduced, at least, they undermine your ability to help—which, after all, is what you are paid for and are there for. So you must continuously show your commitment; you need to show that you eat, breathe and sleep Northern Ireland and that you do so because you like the place. Luckily, that called for no simulation on my part. I have no idea whether I was successful. In short, as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, you need to get out and let the dog see the rabbit—and let it go on seeing it. That will be far more difficult, I fear, if you have to keep flying off to Cardiff. That will suggest to suspicious minds that Northern Ireland is now a diminished concern; confidence will suffer; and the paramilitaries alone will gain. All the same, it is important, where possible, to be positive about the future and there are factors that enable us to be so. The key to the help that any government can give to the people of Northern Ireland is to hold out credible hope that a better way of living can be had. It is a way of living that is self-governing, on fair terms and free from the scourge of violence or threatened violence. I think that people yearn for that, which is an important start. The Government must show a commitment to it that is resolute and undiscouraged. Devolved government has already worked and it can be made to work again, and better, if violence is verifiably forsworn. There is still a contest between democracy and the creed of violence. We cannot tell for how long we will have to fight it, but if the Government will only keep their nerve and commitment, we can be confident that the people of Northern Ireland will win.