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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I do indeed accept that. Difficult decisions would have to be made if Sinn Fein did support the police. It would have to be asked whether the community were confident that policing and justice powers had been devolved, and whether Sinn Fein should have any role in that. I cannot envisage such circumstances, but my hon. Friend tempts me to consider what situation Sinn Fein might face. It might well face the situation faced by a Minister in the Republic—in the Home Office, or whatever it was called in those days—who, having been in the Provisional IRA, had to line up some of his former colleagues who had continued in the war after he had taken up his democratic position, and have them shot. There would be hard decisions for any member of Sinn Fein to take in those circumstances, but I must point out to my hon. Friend that I cannot envisage them arising immediately.