Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The reality was that many of the people perpetrating violence were slow learners and were impervious to demonstrations. If the Deputies are naive enough to think that expressing revulsion will stop the groups currently committed to terrorism on this island or that it is something they have any regard or consideration for, they are living in cloud cuckoo land. The reality is that there is a group of violent people committed to destroying the peace process and to creating as much chaos as they can on this island and all the revulsion in the world will not do any good. Democracies must have legislation in place to protect the essence of democracy. This legislation is necessary to ensure the law enforcement agencies on this island can take whatever action is necessary to ensure that those engaged in these activities can be fully and properly investigated and brought to justice.

My final point is brief. Either Deputies Boyd Barrett and Higgins are of the view that they are part of democracy and of the democratic system, respect Parliament and recognise that Parliament passes laws and those laws should be complied with or they are simply permanent street protestors. One cannot take an À la carte view to the law.

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