David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

The fact is that the Good Friday Agreement, the St. Andrews Agreement and the Hillsborough Agreement recognised that these individuals were political prisoners who were in prison serving time for politically motivated actions. I agree they were released on licence, but it was recognised that they were political prisoners. The Minister is being disingenuous when he says the passing of this Bill will not prevent former political prisoners from being able to get a licence. It gives the Minister the power to make that decision. What we are saying is very clear, that there should be a clear differentiation between people who were involved in criminal offences and people who were convicted of politically motivated offences and released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. We cannot have it both ways. The Minister cannot say he supports the Good Friday Agreement and that he upholds the spirit of that agreement.

To return to the point I made earlier, the words of the Good Friday Agreement refer to "the importance of measures to facilitate the reintegration of prisoners into the community by providing support both prior to and after release, including assistance directed towards availing of employment opportunities, retraining and/or re-skilling, and further education". That is what the agreement states. How is it okay to be a former prisoner and drive a taxi, be a teacher, a doctor, a nurse or anything else but not be permitted to have a licence to operate in the road haulage industry? Why is this Minister the only Minister who is preventing former political prisoners from taking up employment? He wonders then why we think this is some politically motivated agenda on his part.

I see this as a simple amendment which could be accepted. We can disagree about the terminology used with regard to former prisoners. The Minister can use the word "convict" or the words Margaret Thatcher used. He can sit comfortably with those words. That is fine as he is entitled to his opinion. However, he can accept this amendment and, in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, differentiate between those criminals who were convicted of offences and people who were convicted of politically motivated offences. There is a difference and it is enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. It is also enshrined in the agreement that the Government has a legal responsibility to ensure that political prisoners are reintegrated back into society.