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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Concerns were expressed to me—not particularly in relation to the IRA, but generally—about the climate in Northern Ireland’s political culture, because there has not been the openness to which we have become accustomed since we legislated to change the matter after we came to power. There has not been such openness to the same extent in Northern Ireland, so there was therefore a concern, as part of the consultation, that we allow a period of transition to normalisation to settle in. It was not any particular paramilitary organisation that was a particular concern; it could have been any party or any individual.