Seanad debates

Thursday, 8 May 2003

Northern Ireland: Statements.

 

On the last occasion on which we discussed Northern Ireland, I said that it is difficult to encourage people to fully accept that a ceasefire is permanent if, after almost ten years, there are still well-maintained weapons dumps. The latter appears to qualify the position. It is also difficult to get people to move forward if there are ongoing activities which suggest that there is a permanent renewal of preparation for the possibility of conflict – that is what targeting and surveillance are all about – or if they see that, rather than participating in a reformed policing service, a group reserves the right to act as the police service. It is particularly difficult to allow people to be liberated from history if we do not obtain a decisive statement that an organisation, which has been consigned to the past, has been parked in history. Otherwise we cannot move on in the way that Sinn Féin, in particular, believes we should.

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