---

Organised Crime (Northern Ireland)

I rise to speak on the Committee’s substantial report but, try as I might, I shall have difficulty following the eloquence of the hon. Member for Ealing, North (Stephen Pound). However, I shall endeavour to stick to the substance of the report. Organised crime is big business in Northern Ireland. I join other hon. Members in commending the hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Patrick Cormack) and the staff who assisted in producing such a comprehensive report. We took a considerable amount of time travelling around Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, taking evidence and gathering information. As the hon. Gentleman said, some of that information had to be given in confidence, because of the nature of the evidence and the potential threat against those who imparted it to us. Organised crime is big business, whether it is run by criminal gangs or by paramilitary groups. During the course of our investigation, a number of people outlined specific details in their allegations against named republican groups and named loyalist groups. Ironically, the groups that they named are supposedly committed to a peaceful outcome to Northern Ireland’s problems, yet it appears that many of their members are still deeply involved in such activities as running protection rackets. The extent of the problem is outlined in the report, from which I shall take two quotations. The director of the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland, Mr. Nigel Smyth, told us that extortion and racketeering were continuing"““at a very high level””," and that counterfeiting was continuing ““to get worse””. Mrs. Val Smith, who is a former national chairman of the Road Haulage Association in Northern Ireland, said that current levels of criminality were"““worse than…during the troubles””." That is an indication of the backdrop against which we conducted our investigations. It is undoubtedly true that good progress has been made in dealing with some of the problems. No one should seek either to minimise or to undermine that. The Assets Recovery Agency has been hitting some of the individuals involved hard. That is good and should be welcomed, but there must be no room for any complacency or easing up of the campaign to hit those individuals where it hurts. Some announcements have been made in the past few weeks about action against one individual in south Armagh. That is good, but such action is long overdue, because that individual is believed to have a multi-million pound racketeering empire at his beck and call. Whether he is pursued for £5 million or £10 million, the final amount will be a drop in the ocean unless he is pursued rigorously, as all the others who are involved in such activities should be pursued. I am of the opinion, which I hope other hon. Members present share, that there is an innovative and chameleon-like quality to some of those groups. They can adapt and alter their illegal practices and modus operandi to take advantage of any loosening of the system and to drive a coach and horses through any attempt to crack down on their activities. The work is work in progress, to quote some of the people in Northern Ireland who have been quoted on other issues. I should like to discuss the Minister’s response to our report, which we completed and launched in the summer. In responding to what the report said about the impact of organised crime on the economy in Northern Ireland, he said:"““I share the Committee’s concerns about the impact of organised crime on our economy, and agree that everyone in Northern Ireland has a role to play in tackling the problem.””" I hope that the Minister will outline the extent to which the problem is being tackled, given that it is four months since the report was published. One would imagine that any response would be well under way, and we should like to see the outcome of that. In discussing the impact of organised crime on the economy, the Minister also said that he would invite the managing director of the Construction Employers Federation Ltd to discuss with him the nature and extent of such activity. I should also like the Minister to outline, if he able, what that amounted to and what positive plan of action he has. In conclusion, I draw attention to something that several hon. Members referred to. To expand upon what Val Smiths said, organised crime in Northern Ireland appears, in certain respects, to have been getting worse in recent years. However, there are members of organisations in Northern Ireland in both the republican movement and loyalist movements, but particularly the republican movement, who want to be involved in the Government there. That is precisely why my party and I have insisted not only that all prospective participants in any future Government in Northern Ireland must indicate that they support the police, the rule of law and the courts, but that those who previously did not support police officers—indeed, they engaged in shooting them rather than supporting them—must prove over a long period that their change of attitude is deep-seated, and not just grounded in a desire to get into power. That is why we need to see the report in the context of a changing political environment in Northern Ireland and why we need to keep the matter under review throughout the next period, whether it be of three months, six months or a year. We need constantly to monitor those who say that they are moving away from criminal activity. Whether that work is done through the Independent Monitoring Commission, the ARA, the police or other bodies, we need to monitor how such people are behaving, rather than simply accept a verbal statement to the effect that they now support the law that they broke so frequently and for so long.