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Policing and Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland)

I thank all who have taken part in this debate for their thoughtful, constructive and helpful contributions. The Minister made a significant remark and gave some extremely important information when he told us that, by the year 2011, more than 1,000 cases will have been completed by the Historical Enquiries Team. However, that will leave 2,500 or more still to be completed. It underlines the validity and importance of the exchange between him and my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Mr. Benyon). It cannot be open-ended. One must recognise that, among those 2,500 people, are some who will be sorely grieved if they feel that their case will not be dealt with, yet somehow and at some stage, if we are to move on, we must come to an end. As one of the people whom we met on a visit last year pointed out to me, we must also recognise that the Historical Enquiries Team investigates deaths. There are many families in Northern Ireland whose future was destroyed not by death, but by the complete incapacitation of a breadwinner, the scarring of a mother for life or the mutilation of a child. Such people did not die, but their families' hopes died when they were injured. In many ways, they are as much victims of the troubles as the bereaved, and we must recognise that as well. It is difficult. We are all looking forward with eager anticipation to hearing what Eames and Bradley will say. I hope very much to be present at the press conference when they launch their report in a couple of weeks' time. I shall certainly want to talk to the Minister about it, and I know that my Committee will want to consider carefully what Eames and Bradley say. I hope that, collectively, we can make recommendations that make sense and enable us to look forward. Each of us, whether we sit for a constituency in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, is constantly reminded that there are people who cannot have life-prolonging drugs because of their cost. If we are to have a society in Northern Ireland that is totally normal, we must achieve balance. Is it right to continue spending money indefinitely, when other people are in true need? How many people could have been given life-saving drugs from the £200 million that will have been spent on the Saville inquiry? Such questions are awkward, but we must have them at the back of our mind. I am glad to see that Members present agree. I end not on a gloomy note but on a positive one that underlines what enormous progress has been made in Northern Ireland in recent years. The first major report of the Select Committee under my chairmanship was on organised crime, and it was unanimous. It is quite remarkable that people from various parties should be able to produce a unanimous report on organised crime. It was also remarkable that we launched it not in a Committee Room in Westminster, nor even in Belfast city hall, but in Armagh. That was considered quite a brave thing to do. We sat on the platform together, but ever-present, although not obtrusive, was a fairly massive police presence. That was in July 2006. In October 2008, the Committee went to Crossmaglen, not in an escorted convoy but in a little bus. There was no protection as such. I addressed a meeting there of supporters of the family of the late Paul Quinn. The reason for the meeting was to consider one of the most despicable crimes in Northern Ireland in recent years. In a community that a few years ago would not necessarily have welcomed with open arms a Select Committee of the House of Commons from Westminster, we were greeted with enormous warmth and kindness, and we had an extremely positive meeting. That is a measure of how far things have moved in recent years. To the political leaders who have made it possible, particularly the successive leaders of the party represented by my hon. Friend the Member for Upper Bann (David Simpson), we owe an enormous debt of gratitude. We need to assist Northern Ireland's political leaders as they come to the final decisions—it must be they who come to those decisions—about how to move on from the past, learn the lessons and be inspired by the bravery but not obsessed by the misery. If we have made a slight move this afternoon towards helping those in Northern Ireland do so, I shall be well content. Question put and agreed to.