Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

We face real threats on the island of Ireland and on the international scene which must be addressed. We would be doing a grave disservice to our citizens if we were not to retain such powers as those contained in this Act.

Senator Regan made a very serious point about Paul Quinn's murder. That is the subject of proceedings at the moment. The Independent Monitoring Commission's report indicated strongly that while individuals from the Provisional IRA were involved in that heinous attack, they were not in any way acting in an official capacity representing the IRA on that occasion. That is the clear message. We take great sustenance from the fact that the Provisional IRA has been stood down. All the intelligence reports indicate to the Government and to other governments that the organisation is now in a real sense redundant and not in existence in operational terms.