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Northern Ireland Bill

I welcome that intervention, because the hon. Gentleman demonstrates that the DUP is prepared to look again at Sinn Fein’s credentials. Without ever forgetting the grievous wrongs carried out by terrorists in the past, Unionism’s political leaders are looking to the future and hoping for the profound change in republicans’ intentions and motivations for which we all yearn. The Secretary of State and the IMC today have given us some evidence that we have real cause for hope, but I am not surprised that Unionists sometimes look askance at such things. We must remember that we are asking our colleagues in Northern Ireland to share power with Sinn Fein at a time when every political party in the Irish Republic still says that they are unfit to take part in a coalition in Dublin. The Provisional IRA has denied that it has taken part in or authorised recent acts of criminality. We hope that we can trust those words, but we cannot forget that we heard comparable denials after the Enniskillen bombing, the murder of Garda officer Jerry McCabe and numerous other terrorist incidents. It is difficult to drive those memories out of our minds.