Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

Those comments do a disservice to the families who have tried might and main to find some closure on this matter. That has not, in effect, been forthcoming. We have a duty, as elected representatives, if we are to follow in the footsteps of those who founded the State, to be as strong in our desire to preserve our sovereignty as they were and to find some closure for those families.

The Minister of State has gone through the various sections of the Bill which are part of the debate and has clearly defined the number of occasions on which they were used. I and others have argued in previous debates on this issue that some of those provisions should have been used as a measure to combat the serious criminal activity in the State, such as murders, drugs and the gang culture which has evolved around the drug trade.

I very much welcomed the introduction of a number of these measures into the criminal justice system in the Criminal Justice Act 2007. There are others that have not been incorporated. I urge the Minister and the Department to look at those if we consider and deem they are important measures to combat terrorism and the threat of terrorism and to act as a deterrent. The corollary of that would be that they can be used in the same way against those who get involved in very serious criminal activity. I am happy to state I support the continuation of these provisions. My comments on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings in no way take from my revulsion at the Omagh bombing. All such terrorism needs to be condemned and dealt with.