David Norris (Independent)

I agree with colleagues who raised the subject of the IRA statement. That organisation could not possibly have given a clearer or more convincing illustration of its own innate criminality than it did in the statement. It was approached about one murder which was so brutal, vicious and cruel that people within its community compared it to the operations of the Shankill butchers some years ago and it responded by proposing three further murders. That is an astonishing approach. It is time people realised that, despite the kewpie doll appearance and DART accents of some of that party's recent candidates, a vote for Sinn Féin is a vote for kidnap, robbery, rape and murder. It is not appropriate that people in recent vox pops in the two by-election campaigns should state that Sinn Féin might be better able than other parties to obtain for them their council house, a television set or whatever. Such an approach should not be taken when dealing with hardened criminals and murderers.

I honour the McCartney sisters who, as other Members pointed out, have asked for one thing, namely, due process. That is the basic level at which everybody should operate. Something similar to what happened to Robert McCartney happened seven years ago to a Mr. Kearney, whose mother appealed for information about his killers. She received an apology from some of the Sinn Féin leaders, but nothing more was done about it. I will not recite all the murders carried out, but it is time to shout "Stop".

I am astonished to hear our national broadcasting station and see our newspapers refer without question to the 100th anniversary conference of Sinn Féin. If we accept that, we are saying that all the political ancestors of the parties in this House were the same as these people. That is a worrying thought.