Liz O'Donnell (Dublin South, Progressive Democrats)

In the short time available I wish to support the motion and make a few observations. In deploring the murder of Robert McCartney by members of the IRA and others, and commending his family's remarkable courage in demanding justice, it is worth remembering there are 2,000 other unresolved murders arising from the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

What makes this murder so significant politically and in terms of its implications for Sinn Féin is not that it cannot be wrapped in the immunity usually conferred by the "struggle" but that it has come at a time when that central question of IRA criminality is now the single obstacle to achieving a final settlement of the conflict as envisaged by the Good Friday Agreement.

As has previously been said in the debate, this was no drunken brawl, it was premeditated slaughter. It was a cover up by those who abused their power, a power which for decades has rendered the IRA immune from criminality and even disapproval in the eyes of its own community. Over the past few months Sinn Féin leaders have found themselves refusing to describe past republican actions as crimes. To concede that label of criminality for IRA activities over 30 years would offend the integrity of what its members perceive to be their struggle against injustice and occupation. In their minds it would be a slur, a diminishing of their version of history, which is noble and patriotic. Those republicans who killed and died for Ireland must from a Sinn Féin perspective be retrospectively protected from the label of common criminality. One man's crime was another man's patriotic struggle for justice.

After years of protracted discussions there is still no shared or agreed view of the cause of the conflict; perhaps there never will be. What we had hoped for in the peace process was for the building of a shared vision for the future and a fresh start. Whatever about putting behind us the crimes of the past, post-Good Friday Agreement there cannot be any acceptance of ongoing criminality.

The peace process was built on the basis of acceptance of the integrity of the other side's quarrel. It was about burying the hatchet and working together to agree a settlement, which would remove the cause of the conflict. It required significant concessions from all of us, the release of prisoners, evacuating treasured constitutional positions, inclusion in democratic politics of former paramilitaries, the demilitarisation of Northern Irish society, reform of policing and judicial systems, admissions of past failures and a plethora of inquiries into the wrongs of the past.

For those Ministers close to the process — there have been Ministers from many parties — it has been an exercise of faith, hope and, unfortunately, serial disappointment. It was a high-risk investment. As David Trimble said, it was a "white-knuckle ride". I reject the suggestion that the Governments turned a blind eye to criminality. The job of Governments in the process was to steer a ship through stormy waters, to progressively build confidence among the parties representing paramilitaries, which would result in an exodus from violence and the embrace of democracy and the rule of law.

Many of us had "dark nights of the soul" about the risks being taken with fundamental democratic principles. We knew on Good Friday that the Agreement was just a start. Sadly since then we have lurched from crisis to crisis but in the round, as Mo Mowlam would say, things are immeasurably better. I do not despair or recriminate that it has taken this long to come to the crunch decision for Sinn Féin on the issue of criminality. It is a critical challenge and opportunity for that party. For a long time we were stuck on the issue of decommissioning of weapons. George Mitchell once said it was the decommissioning of the mindset that mattered. We are at that juncture now.

I do not begrudge or question Sinn Féin's mandate. The whole idea of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement was that Sinn Féin would embrace politics, that politics would work for its members and that they could legitimately pursue their political aspirations through totally non-violent means. Never for a moment did we imagine that thuggery and criminality would replace the military campaign as a modus operandi.

As one who engaged with Sinn Féin in good faith as a Minister of State in respectful negotiations I urge those in Sinn Féin and the many thousands of people who support them to be worthy of the trust which I and many others placed in them in the past ten years. They should not use weasel words in responding to the McCartney family. They should seize the opportunity to take a new road for the republican movement. Peace with justice has become a Sinn Féin mantra. For too long justice has been a one-way street. Human rights was something it demanded; not something it ever imagined would be expected of it. How else could the barbarity of punishment attacks on young dysfunctional youths be squared with human rights? It is difficult to understand why the wider republican community has given the IRA immunity for those terrible crimes over many years?

The brave McCartney sisters are not only posing compelling and uncomfortable questions for Sinn Féin, they are posing the same questions to their own community. They are asking if they really need protectors who are battering their own people to death when the mood takes them. It is truly a defining moment to see the people of the Short Strand rise up against IRA criminality. Mo Mowlam's dream of the peace process becoming a people's project is just starting to become a reality for the people of the Short Strand and the wider republican community. I hope the Sinn Féin leadership has the courage to listen to and hear the strong messages coming from within its own constituency. Perhaps we have come to a time when Sinn Féin and the rest of us can at least have a shared understanding of what is justice.

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