Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

While we want the Good Friday Agreement to work and we welcome that the Northern Ireland Assembly is working, I raised the question last week of the brutal murder of Paul Quinn and how the intimidated community will not give information to the PSNI or the Garda. The weekend's newspapers reported that Robert McCartney's sister, while doing her duty as a nurse in the Markets area, was intimidated by provo activists. Most of that family has emigrated because of intimidation.

I call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to meet the Quinn family and use his good offices to insist such intimidation ceases in Northern Ireland and on this side of the Border. There is no point in Sinn Féin politicians calling on people to co-operate with the PSNI when local activists frighten the life out of people. The intimidation must cease and the Minister must send Sinn Féin and the provo activists the message that such intimidation cannot take place in any society.