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Northern Ireland: Massereene Army Base

My Lords, I have already had the opportunity this afternoon to express my sympathy, and I do so again with those families who have suffered. With every ounce of sincerity that I can muster, I appeal from these Benches that there should be no retaliation in Northern Ireland for the dreadful execution that occurred at Massereene barracks. It is important to us all. It would be an insult to the families of those who have lost loved ones if any retaliation took place. On the issue of intelligence, I have had 12 responses to Parliamentary Questions in the past three or four months; 50 per cent of these have been non-answers in so far as I have been told that this is an operational intelligence matter. Particularly in the light of the Prime Minister’s unequivocal statement that these killers will be brought to justice, I should like to know the state of intelligence in Northern Ireland at the moment. We have had the chief constable for months tell us about the dangers. We have had the recent warning. We have had an unequivocal statement by the Prime Minister. Yet one Parliamentary Answer that I got seems to contradict it all, saying: ""The PSNI is also unable to provide information on charges relating specifically to dissident republican attacks as they are not attributed to individual dissident groupings. The Public Prosecution Service does not record what organisation a suspect is believed to represent in its conviction statistics".—[Official Report, 26/11/08; col. WA318.]" Is there not a contradiction? Are we not having a cover-up? Is there intelligence and, if so, why is it not acted on? Is there no intelligence and is that why we find ourselves with this guessing game, which was not at the weekend successful?