Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

I do not believe the Minister has a personal agenda in regard to this. When the Bill was being drafted, the Minister could not have foreseen that we would be discussing the Good Friday Agreement and republican prisoners and so on and that is where the issue has arisen, because once the Bill is drafted, there is difficulty in changing it. I was at a meeting last Saturday in the North and there was a very representative group of people around the table, chamber of commerce people and regeneration committee people, etc. I was sitting beside a Sinn Féin Minister and sitting across from me was the local police commander. The Minister, who spent 14 years in jail, said something which to my mind sums up the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. She said to the police commander that there was a time when she would not have been sitting there with him because he would have been arresting her. She pointed out that in fact he had arrested her on one occasion but that what had come out of the peace process was that they had all agreed to work together. There is no doubt that there are many hurting and that some people will hurt till they go to their graves. We will not even be aware of many of those hurting because it is so serious, but as we know, that is what comes from conflict. We know that is what comes out of conflict. We need only go back to Terence MacSwiney, Thomas Ashe and all the great figures in Irish history who spent time in prison. We can say at a given time that they were different. In the 1950s when we had troubles in the North of Ireland, people lost their jobs. They lost their jobs as teachers in the vocational schools, in the ESB and in State bodies. When they came out and those troubles stopped, all those people got their jobs back. It was the spirit of it rather than legislation that was required.

If this Bill was being drafted again and if we had considered this issue, it is possible we would have had different wording. We could argue forever about the definition of a political prisoner. I just read a book on the subject by people who were political prisoners in different periods of Irish history. The conflict and the debate was always there. One side, in particular the British side, said these people were common criminals. We could go on forever with this debate. We will not come to a conclusion because we all hold different political views.

The Good Friday Agreement was one of the greatest things to happen on this island for many decades and people are still basking in the sunshine of that agreement. The political prisoners who returned to the community wanted, as the eminent Senator made quite clear, to get on with their lives as we all do. The victims want to get on with their lives as well.

Even though it has arisen in a Road Transport Bill, it is a bigger issue. It is just that the underlying message that goes with it is a pity. I heard the Minister speak and I do not believe there will be a change. It is a pity we cannot get that change. If we could have had consensus, we would endorse what the voters, North and South, did in the Good Friday Agreement. It was the first time since 1919 that we had an all-island vote. We would say to them that we are prepared to bury our differences. There is an issue here which needs to be addressed. We do not need rhetoric or the passion that went with that politics. We are now thinking of a new Ireland and in that context, I would like the Minister to reflect on what has been said. It is not a reflection on him because he is an honourable Minister and I do not believe for a moment that he has a personal agenda. However, the issue has a connotation and will have an echo on the broader issue of the Good Friday Agreement.