Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I assure the House that there is an ongoing assessment of the activities of all paramilitary groupings. There is a number of fringe groupings, most of which are quite small, but an ongoing security assessment is undertaken by the Garda Síochána. Obviously, there is very close co-operation with the PSNI on these matters. Over the last six months or so there have been ongoing reports of their activities and what they have been engaged in. The situation has not changed greatly over the last few years. There is a hard core of people who never accepted the changed position back in the mid to late 1990s. While there has been a great deal of success by the Garda and a large number of these people have received sentences, many of them long sentences, there are related contacts who continue to engage in these activities. A lot of effort has been made by many people over the past decade to get most of these groups to cease and desist from such activities. That has been successful with a lot of the groups and units moving away. Some of the families associated with these dissident republican activities have also moved away, but a hard core remains.

We know, without giving any credibility to the organisations of the past — many of the small ones would have been around even before the Troubles significantly started — that it does not take a lot to create acts of terrorism. It is an ongoing concern and the Garda, through its specialist units, keeps on top of this as best it can. Whenever these organisations have any success in their activities, one is always worried because these people are ultimately spoilers who do not want to see progress. They want to pull us back. There is ongoing work and contact in this area. We are all, including the Northern authorities, pleased that we are engaged in this way.

The Deputy is correct that there have been threats against the First Minister, Dr. Paisley, and the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness. In fairness to both — and I have discussed it with them both — this only gives them further determination to press on with the agenda on which they have been working so well since 8 May last. I hope whoever replaces Dr. Paisley will continue to do that.

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