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

I am disappointed that the Minister has not accepted this amendment and I would like him to reconsider it. What the legislation is doing is discriminating in an institutional way against people who are former political prisoners. In the Twenty-six Counties at present, even without the legislation, ex-republican prisoners involved in the conflict and released under the Good Friday Agreement, who played a huge role in convincing many who were very sceptical about the process that it was the way forward and worked tirelessly around the clock to ensure the contents of the Good Friday Agreement, the St. Andrews Agreement and the Hillsborough Agreement became a reality, cannot get a job as a taxi or lorry driver. With this omission the Bill allows this situation to continue.

If the amendment were accepted it would send a tremendous message across the spectrum. It would show political understanding and acceptance by the Dáil that what was done by people who were involved in the conflict and who are working for peace and justice throughout the island is different from other types of offences mentioned by the Minister. The people themselves have no doubt that what they were involved in was politically motivated. This is no different from generations who went before them from the first Dáil through to the present day. If the people involved in military action against the Crown forces of occupation in the Twenty-six Counties were here today, they would find themselves in the same position as this generation of republican activists.

This is an opportunity and I hope the Minister will not miss it. It would send a clear message that people conforming to, accepting and helping to implement the Good Friday Agreement, the St. Andrews Agreement and the Hillsborough Agreement are proactively promoting and advancing the peace process and creating a political process whereby all of us with the desire to see the ultimate objective of what Irish republicanism stands for can achieve our aim. I would hate to see the Minister miss this opportunity. Whatever difficulties he has can be overcome in the context of universal acceptance in the political sphere on the island of Ireland with regard to people involved in the conflict at that time and who were motivated politically and not by selfish greed or violence.

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