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Northern Ireland Bill

Some time ago, our party released a document called ““Facing Reality””. This House is beginning to face some realities, because when I was previously a Member, prior to 1997, many Members did not want to know the realities of the situation in Northern Ireland or of the suffering of the Unionist people and did not want to deal with the IRA. They were closing their eyes to acts of republican terrorism, often because they wanted to keep the trouble in Northern Ireland—as long as it stayed off the streets of London and the mainland, and did not affect them, that was acceptable. There was a famous statement about the ““acceptable level of violence””. My party is desirous of the restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland, with Ministers who are democrats dealing with and taking decisions on day-to-day issues in Northern Ireland. There is great distrust, however, and no one can close their eyes to that. I agree with the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon). We have no intention of misleading the Ulster people. We are going to tell it exactly as it is to them and to the Secretary of State and the Ministers concerned, before and on 24 November. We are not going to shadow-box with anyone: we will tell people the realities of the situation. Even when we have suffered in electoral terms, we have never misled the general public, and we are not going to mislead them now. I certainly know the realities of how obnoxious it is to sit in a council with those who have been totally wedded to terrorism—for example, one of the three most wanted men in Northern Ireland. The only poster naming three wanted men appeared in what was then my constituency—in Magherafelt, which was in the constituency of Mid-Ulster. Those three persons were Dominic McGlinchey, who was murdered by the IRA when he fell out with it; Francis Hughes, who went on hunger strike, fell out with himself and decided to take his own life; and Ian Milne. The reality of the situation—what the House does not realise—is that the third most wanted man sits in Magherafelt district council at this moment. He has never been brought to court. It seems to me that there has been a cover-up. I know that a family who believe that he was responsible for the murder of the Speers family are horrified that he is sitting in that council untouched. Another councillor is a famous gunman; another is a famous IRA bomber. These people are sitting in the council in which I have to sit. They destroy, demean and soil democracy, and we cannot close our eyes to the realities of the situation. I say this clearly: democratic institutions must be built on a solid foundation. It is no use building them on sand; there must be a rock foundation of democracy, integrity and honesty. There can be no equivocation on terrorism and those who are inextricably linked to terrorist organisations. If we want the democratic institution to succeed, those who are engaged in it must be unreservedly opposed to all terrorism and the retention of all terrorist structures. We need to see the dismantling of those structures—not just the disbanding of the IRA, but the dismantling of the structures of terror, and the removal of all the teeth of war—if we are to move forward in a democratic fashion. Sinn Fein and the IRA are inextricably linked. They are one and the same. That has not changed. It is no use the House closing its eyes to that: at this moment, it is still the reality. Over the past 30 years, Sinn Fein and the IRA have turned on and turned off violence whenever it has suited them. Yes, there has been a change. Let us be honest. As my colleagues have rightly said, the demands of our party, standing resolutely against Sinn Fein-IRA in the past, have certainly brought them to the realisation that they will not wipe the eye of the Ulster electorate or the Ulster people. But we are resolved to do what we promised to do. We will honour the principles that we set out at the time of the election: we will not go back on the principles that we put before the electorate. Yes, 9/11 produced changes, because Sinn Fein-IRA knew that, internationally, they could not go back to what they did best. But we must face the reality: up to this moment, Sinn Fein and the IRA are inextricably linked. The impression has been given that the IMC report somehow gives a clean bill of health, and that somehow democrats can walk arm in arm with those who have been responsible for some of the most heinous crimes, not only in the past but in the present. We cannot close our eyes to the murder in Dublin of Joseph Rafferty by the IRA. We cannot close our eyes to Robert McCartney’s murder. We cannot close our eyes to the murder of Denis Donaldson. We need to know exactly who was responsible and, if the IRA is found guilty, the IRA and its colleagues must pay the price of their compliance and their activity in terrorism. The report clearly rings alarm bells. Even after all the attempts at a whitewash, some members of that organisation—including senior ones—are still involved in crimes such as fuel laundering, money laundering, extortion, tax evasion and smuggling. Imagine anyone suggesting that we should have such people in this House or in government!