Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that we all have a role to play in upholding and maintaining the Good Friday Agreement and on how the relationship on this island has developed. From my engagement with the Minister, Ms Naomi Long, and the Department's engagement, a significant way in which we can uphold the Good Friday Agreement is by maintaining peace and making sure that those who seek to disrupt that peace are brought to justice. That is why the work of the IGA, which I mentioned previously, is so vital in this regard. Some of the areas we have worked on in recent years include drug, rural, financial, trafficking and human crime, which includes the trafficking of children and women, often for sexual reasons. Other areas include excise fraud and organised immigration crime. Many of the behaviours of paramilitary groups in the North have crossed over to these types of crime. It is important for us to be able to uphold and maintain that peace and for that work to continue at a ministerial level, as well as between police services and different Departments. I am not aware of the cases the Deputy mentioned, but I would be happy to talk to him afterwards about those.

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