David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the Taoiseach to the House. It is always good to hear his balanced reports on progress. There has been progress and quite a large proportion is due to the Taoiseach's dogged determination to pursue the course of peace in Northern Ireland in very difficult days. We have had decommissioning, which was a major and spectacular event. I was out of the country at the time but the story was all over the international media. It puts us in a position where we can hold our heads up with a certain amount of respect. We had to wait a long time for it but at least it was done without a major IRA split, which is very significant and important.

It is tragic that each generation seems to have to learn that the use of force is futile. Even when I was a child in school, we learned that the application of force creates an equal and opposite force. Both sides eventually realised that they could not win militarily. I am glad that they did but at such a cost. This lesson has not yet been fully learned by the governments on the neighbouring island and in the United States of America with their adventure in Iraq. I wish to God that they would learn it soon.

I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach is considering the questions of representation and speaking rights. He has excluded the Dáil, which only leaves this House, so I presume there will be some move here. We have an honourable tradition in this regard in the House, exemplified at present by Senator Maurice Hayes. I also pay tribute to other people who have not been mentioned. One of them is Seámus Mallon, with whom I disagreed on so many of what were called "moral issues". However, he is a man of the utmost integrity, as was the late Gerry Fitt.

There has been movement on the Unionist side. I was very pleased to see the Reverend Ian Paisley going into a Roman Catholic school, meeting with the children and condemning the barbarous notion of the desecration of graves. As a member of the Church of Ireland, I absolutely condemn this kind of behaviour. It is barbarism of the worst sort. Decent people, whatever their disagreements, respect the tribal dead of each side.

We all know there are still problems with Sinn Féin and the IRA. It is not just the news coming from Manchester; it is much closer to home. There are lists of pubs around Dublin that everybody believes have been secured with hot money from the IRA. When I watched "Questions and Answers" approximately six weeks ago, I saw a Sinn Féin representative from the other House. Perhaps I should not name him but I am sure the Taoiseach knows who it is. His initials are "M. F.". He was asked about fund raising and the way Sinn Féin bankrolled all its elections. An individual mentioned bank raids and the Sinn Féin representative calmly replied that this was what he termed "armed fund raising". This suggests that Sinn Féin is a party that is only mildly tainted by constitutionality.