Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

I support the amendment as put by Deputy Ó Snodaigh. I outlined the reasoning behind it on the floor of the House yesterday. We are in a new situation and there are huge opportunities for those who were involved, not through any fault of their own, in the conflict we are now coming out of, or, thank God, are out of. It is a step backwards that people who worked so hard to bring about a peaceful situation could find themselves being discriminated against because of their involvement in the struggle in the Six Counties. If that same legislation was enacted 70 or 80 years ago, I doubt there would have been anybody sitting in here - let us be honest about it. In the peace process and the political process that emanated from it, including the negotiations where the British Government was prepared to accept that people involved in the conflict, even prisoners, were of a special category, the prisoners were effectively released having served two years. In the Six Counties, there is no way they are discriminated against in that way.

I ask the Minister to take the amendment on board. It would be a very positive step and positive for all of us who have worked through the years since 1998 in trying to implement the workings of the Good Friday Agreement and the Hillsborough Agreement. All of that is coming into train and we are in a totally different dispensation now. Through this amendment, the Bill should effectively protect the rights of people who found themselves in that situation.

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