Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I have a good story about that, which I will share with the Senator privately.

Senior Sinn Féin figures use a certain type of language when speaking about the minority Government party. If any of the rest of us used such language when talking about Sinn Féin, its members would be in front of the television cameras using the classic old phrase "hit me now, with the peace process in my arms", which they are inclined to use over and over again. It is time they became fully involved in the norms of political debate. Others are entitled to hand out to Sinn Féin members what they hand out to others. I am not trying to be destructive when I argue that they should engage in the normal routine of political debate, as we do in this House on a daily and hourly basis. I hope those of us to whom they looked for some sympathy when nobody would talk to them can have some modicum of influence over them. We can help them to realise that they are rapidly backing themselves into the cul-de-sac from which they escaped.

Society does not have room for the shadowy enforcers of law and order, many of whom are involved in anti-drugs campaigns, who are found in many working class communities. I refer to those who knocked on a door in Tralee and, allegedly, used their eloquence to persuade somebody to gently hand back a stolen television. We are expected to believe that hardened criminals changed their minds and handed back stolen goods, simply because of the eloquence of senior members of Sinn Féin, but we know what was behind that. It was criminal activity, which should be clearly understood as any activity that is in breach of the law of the state in which one lives. Criminal activity is not what one chooses to call it. If we are to make progress, we should dismiss any suggestion of moral equivalence. There is, and never has been, any room in Irish society for the killing, murdering and maiming of other people in the name of any political objective. It needs to be stated bluntly and clearly that we have waited long enough. We have held our peace, kept our silence and restrained ourselves.

I do not agree with many Senators on the issues arising from the murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. If the release of his killers was the only thing preventing the achievement of an otherwise comprehensive, enforceable and permanent agreement and a political party in this State was willing to be involved in such an agreement, we would have to bite our lips again. Irish people are entitled to ask the party that is calling for their release how we can trust it inside or outside Government, given that it has changed its mind. How can we trust Sinn Féin, given that it told lies about the matter at the time, for example by pretending that it had nothing to do with the killing? That, and not whether certain people will be released from prison under certain as yet unrealised circumstances, is the fundamental political question. How can a political party expect decent law-abiding people in this State to trust it when it denied that the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe were aligned to it until the dust had settled on peace? That, and not the potential release of the people in question, is the fundamental issue.

As Senator Maurice Hayes said eloquently in the House some weeks ago, we have to understand the position of those who have endured the agonising process of watching killers being released. I understand their position, but I am entitled to ask the political party that sees the issue as being part of a comprehensive agreement what it really stands for.