Ivana Bacik (Independent)

Like other colleagues, I join in expressing my outright condemnation of the brutal murders in Northern Ireland over the weekend and yesterday, and I express my sympathies to the families of those killed and injured in such a horrible way. We all thought we had gone back in time when we first heard the news. I heard it late on Saturday night and thought I was listening to an archive programme. It was so shocking and appalling to hear again the words: "Two soldiers have been killed in Northern Ireland." It brought home to all of us how fragile and precious the peace process is and how we may have come to take it for granted in recent years.

Along with colleagues from this House and the other House, I have the privilege of serving on the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. It is a wonderful privilege to serve alongside Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the formation of this committee was a most historic development. It brings home to us the importance of these types of initiatives in preserving the peace process. In recent months we learned just how fragile our prosperity is but we thought that even if we were not leaving prosperity to our children at least we were leaving them a peaceful Ireland, one that we were creating and developing for them. Now we know both peace and prosperity are equally fragile and precious. I join again with others in expressing condemnation and the sympathy we all feel.

I do not believe this is empty posturing. It is important that we all speak out. They may be only words but words have been hugely important both in stirring up hatred and anger in Northern Ireland and in creating peace and dampening down sectarian motivation. We cannot underestimate the power of language. It is an important and powerful gesture for us all today, on both sides of the House, to express universal condemnation of these awful attacks. If there is one sign of hope it lies in the response of the communities in Northern Ireland and in the incredible outpouring of sympathy and support for the families of those killed and injured. That is hopeful and optimistic and I believe we can build on it.