Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

This is a fact. We must decommission the substantial empire the IRA has amassed by criminal means in recent years. Last week, Senator Minihan put it very well when he stated the IRA was not going out of business but into business. It is the kind of business we must be very careful of and expose, which is the view of every democratic political party inside and outside the House. How can we possibly fight against a political party that allegedly washes dirty money through clean, legitimate operations? Sinn Féin is not a normal democratic constitutional party. While its statement of 28 July on decommissioning is welcome, we must see further evidence that it has travelled the road we all travel on a daily basis. Only when it has divested itself of its empire and illegitimate police force, which attempts to pervert citizens in both jurisdictions, will it be considered a normal constitutional party.

I thank the Taoiseach for meeting members of the Rafferty family recently. They were grateful he would meet them and listen to their case, the details of which he knows better than most. I will use this opportunity to look to the future, be positive about these developments and demand that the substantial criminal empire that is Sinn Féin-IRA be decommissioned. Through these means, we can welcome Sinn Féin into normal constitutional politics.