Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

On behalf of the Labour Party, I support the motion proposed by the Taoiseach.

Last January in the Round Room of the Mansion House we celebrated the 90th anniversary of the first Dáil, which was the exercise of a democratic mandate, under universal suffrage throughout this island, calling for self-determination for the Irish people. Those who gathered in the Mansion House on 21 January 1919 had a true democratic mandate for their actions. They were entitled to the loyalty of those who accept basic democratic principles. We in this House, as successors of the men and women of the first Dáil Éireann, enjoy the same mandate, grounded on the consent of the people.

Last June we marked the anniversary of another momentous occasion, the tenth anniversary of the referendums North and South on the Good Friday Agreement. That was the first time since the general election of 1918 that a popular mandate was again firmly secured throughout this island. The mandate was for peaceful co-existence and for co-operation to build a better future for our children on this island. Every Irish man and woman with any sense of respect for the ideals of popular sovereignty and democratic rule must recognise that this Oireachtas and the Northern Ireland Assembly owe their existence to the settled will of the Irish people.

The outrages of this week, the bloody murders of Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar and of Constable Stephen Paul Carroll, were offences against three men, three mourning families and three circles of relatives and friends. They were also offences against the two young men who were seriously injured and their families and friends. However, these murders are more than that. They are nothing short of acts of treason against the Irish nation. These crimes are anti-national, anti-patriotic and anti-republican, because they display nothing but contempt for the settled will of the Irish people.

There is nothing noble or patriotic about these groups. We know that there are links between what are called "dissident" republican groups and criminal gangs involved in the drugs trade in this jurisdiction. They support each other, exchange weapons and provide logistical support for each other. These groups are simply criminal gangs who wrap the national flag around themselves in a futile attempt to provide some veneer of justification for murder. The police and prosecution authorities will have support from every part of the House in hunting down the offenders and bringing them to justice.

The crimes came as a profound shock to many of us in this part of Ireland. We must admit, perhaps, that Northern Ireland and its ongoing security concerns had dropped down the public agenda here. If so, we cannot blame Sir Hugh Orde, who only last week warned of the danger of an imminent attack from dissident republicans. We also cannot blame the Independent Monitoring Commission, which published its 20th and latest report last November and highlighted the threats posed by dissident republicans. The IMC gave a warning that was grim, timely and, it turns out, well-founded. According to its report:

Three things are clear. First, in the six months under review (and indeed in the weeks following the end of that period) dissidents — mainly CIRA and RIRA — have been especially active. From May to the end of the period under review there was a more concentrated period of attacks than at any time since we started to report on them four and a half years ago. We believe that dissidents have also been undertaking planning and preparation for other attacks. Second, if it were not for the fact that the police on both sides of the border have been successful in disrupting dissident operations and arresting suspects, the number of reported incidents would have been higher. Thirdly, dissidents have turned their efforts more directly to trying to kill PSNI officers, using a variety of tactics and methods.

The commission said that the Continuity IRA had not only undertaken direct attacks against members of the PSNI but had also engineered public disorder, with a view to exploiting the exposure of police officers which it expected to result from it. In addition, it indicated that the organisation had continued to seek to enhance its capability and continued to plan and take part in a range of serious criminal activity, including drug dealing, robbery and tiger kidnapping, extortion, fuel laundering and smuggling. Last July it threatened that staff of the UK revenue and customs and of the Northern Ireland vehicle licensing authority would be targeted if they continued to help the PSNI.

The IMC's final conclusion was that the Continuity IRA remains active, that it focused particular efforts on attacks on members of the PSNI which could have resulted in the loss of life, that it continues to try to enhance its capabilities through recruitment, training, the acquisition and manufacture of weapons and raising funds, and that it is engaged in the same range of serious criminal activity as before. It indicated that, "The organisation remains a very serious threat."

We owe it to the police and security services and to their families — to every inhabitant of this island, North and South — to do everything possible to destroy this organisation root and branch. In seeking to do so, the PSNI has a potential advantage that was not available to its predecessors. As the first Garda Commissioner, Michael Staines, put it, "The Garda Síochána will succeed, not by force of arms or numbers, but by their moral authority as servants of the people." The same principle holds true of policing services everywhere.

Under the Patten reforms the PSNI has become a transformed service, with a transformed mandate. It enjoys increased acceptance and support throughout the community. All democratic public representatives, North and South, must do everything possible to further develop that community support. The tactics of the Continuity IRA cannot prevail against a service supported by the community it serves.

The parties in the Northern Ireland Executive, together with the two Governments and all the parties here, must now confront the growing perception that the absence of progress on the devolution of justice and policing has created a political vacuum, or may have caused disaffection among republican supporters, which the dissidents think they are able to exploit.

Given that there were two separate attacks, involving three murders in the space of 48 hours, there must be a danger that the people of Northern Ireland are now facing a concerted campaign of murder and violence. One of the main concerns, particularly in regard to the Antrim attack, was the way in which it was carried out. I would never want to use the word "professional" in regard to such loathsome murderers, but the manner in which the killings were carried out suggests a level of expertise and experience that was not evident in attacks carried out previously by that group. It suggests that it may have acquired either new recruits or new expertise, which has given it a new capability. Perhaps the Minister responding to the debate might indicate if there is any intelligence available to suggest that is the case.

The objective of those who carried out those attacks is clear. They want to turn back the clock. They want to see Northern Ireland plunged again into sectarian conflict. They want to bring down the Assembly and the Executive. They want to again see the political parties in Northern Ireland at each other's throats. They want to deprive communities in Northern Ireland of civilian policing. They want to see the British army back on the streets of Northern Ireland. They must not be allowed to succeed. All democrats, North and South, Nationalist, Unionist and other, must stand together in the face of those attacks and ensure this tiny and unrepresentative minority are not allowed to usurp the will of the overwhelming majority of people on this island.

Finally, in paying tribute today to British army sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar and police constable, Stephen Paul Carroll, we should also acknowledge the deaths of the approximately 3,500 people who died in a futile campaign of violence that went on for approximately 30 years. It left a terrible legacy in terms of the numbers dead and wounded and communities scarred by violence.

The negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement offered a new dawn of hope. The progress in the years after the Agreement was painfully slow and frustrating, but the institutions in Northern Ireland have shown a new resilience in the face of those attacks. The way in which the parties in the Assembly stood together in condemnation of those attacks provides real grounds for optimism. Those groups must not be allowed to rob the people of Northern Ireland of the better future they all deserve.

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