Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann calls on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to outline the Government’s position on the current political situation in Northern Ireland.

I thank the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, for coming into the House today to discuss the situation in Northern Ireland. I read an article by Dearbhail McDonald in the Sunday Independentlast Sunday on her recollections of the Troubles and how they still affect her today. She wrote:

I can still remember the sounds of the first bomb I ever heard. And to this day there are back roads at home that I can't drive alone after dark because of terrifying childhood recollections [...] I count myself blessed that my family and I were not among the 7,000 parents who lost their child, the 15,000 who lost a sibling or the 3,000 who lost a spouse [...] The real tragedy, 21 years after the IRA ceasefire, and almost 18 years after the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, is that the people of Northern Ireland are being held hostage. They are being held hostage to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams' vainglorious plan to govern on both sides of the border by the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 2016.

This was an excellent piece by Dearbhail McDonald and it should be read by everybody. I welcome the request by our Taoiseach and the Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, that the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, together with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, facilitate the return of the five main parties in Northern Ireland to the round table talks, which resumed yesterday. The talks will hopefully advance the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement and address the trust and confidence issues arising from the impact and legacy of paramilitary activity.

Getting to this stage has been very difficult. I know that every effort is being made to ensure a successful outcome to the talks. I think all parties involved are optimistic that with committed, collective engagement the two Governments and all the parties can make real progress on both the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement and tackling the legacy of paramilitarism. Last Friday, the Secretary of State announced a British Government assessment of the current profile of paramilitarism in Northern Ireland. Yesterday, the British Government announced the three members of an independent panel set up to assess paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland. The British Government assessment is separate from the request of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, to the Garda Commissioner to continue to liaise closely with the PSNI in respect of its investigation into the murder of Kevin McGuigan and to let her have a fresh assessment in light of any evidence emerging from that investigation.

The issue of criminality stemming from the legacy of paramilitarism is also an important point for the talks. I welcome the Secretary of State's announcement that there will be enhanced support and resources for tackling criminality in Northern Ireland. This is very much in keeping with the Government's strong determination to tackle crime and I look forward to the outcome of the conference on organised crime that the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice, David Ford, will host in County Sligo. We have had debates from the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly on criminality, on diesel laundering and all the other activities that are going on in the Border area. Many people feel that a blind eye has been turned, by the British authorities in particular, to that area. I always believe in following the money. The money must be followed because one can see the lifestyle of many of the people who are involved in this activity, the type of houses they have and so on. One wonders where the money and the proceeds of these crimes are. It is very easy for Sinn Féin to say - though I laud them for saying it - that people should bring any evidence of criminality to the PSNI but when there is a system in which some communities in Northern Ireland are terrified to give information for fear of what happened to Robert McCartney, Paul Quinn and others-----