Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on his reappointment as Minister of State. It was well earned. As a neighbour in Cork, I am delighted for him.

Fianna Fáil will support the measures because they are necessary and because we still have the threat of dissident republicanism, organised crime and organised terror all over this island and throughout Europe. It is important to note that we as an Oireachtas have an overriding safeguard on these measures because they have to come before us on an ongoing basis for renewal, and that is an important protection.

There are criminal gangs in this city, which we all know about. Every day we read in the evening newspapers about a murder, drug trafficking, firearms offences, explosives offences and kidnappings, among other crimes. Ordinary citizens in the capital and throughout rural Ireland are living in fear of organised crime.

Jury intimidation is a real threat. There is no question or doubt about it. I know all about it, living not too far from Limerick. It would be very unfair for ordinary citizens who happen to be on the register of electors if they were to be selected for jury service in cases where there could be interference from organised crime and where they would be in fear of their lives. It would be very difficult for them to dispense justice in a calm and reasonable way. We have a safeguard in so far as the DPP can override that if he or she so wishes.

Global terrorism is common and it is coming closer to home all the time. We have seen the atrocities in London, Paris, Berlin, America, all over the Middle East and the rest of the world. Society has to be able to stand up to it. Organised terror always tests a civilised government or institution because it will keep making it essential for the state to protect itself. There is always a fine line between the protection of the state and the rights of the individual. There is no shortage of people in this country or elsewhere who will make a stand for civil liberties. It is good that happens, but the greatest civil liberty of all is life. I am sure the Minister of State would agree.

I ask anyone to point to cases where the Acts before us have been counterproductive or where they should not have been introduced. If people have any doubts about that they should ask the relations of Veronica Guerin or Jerry McCabe. They will tell us in a resounding manner what they would think of that. Unfortunately, there is still a minority in this country who think, as Deputy Jim O'Callaghan said in the Dáil, that they can bomb their way into the political world they desire. There are very few of them left. We have seen that there are other ways to make progress. That is evident in our own country when one looks at the example of people such as John Hume, Seamus Mallon, David Trimble and also Sinn Fein when it came into the peace process.There will always be the right to protest, the man with the megaphone who is entitled to go out, once he behaves reasonably, to get his message across to the people, but that kind of violence and intimidation has no place in a proper society.

I am old enough to remember the days when a very young Minister, a neighbour of mine in Limerick, Dessie O'Malley, as Minister for Justice had to introduce a special powers Act in the early 1970s because of the atrocities by so called republicans in the North and in the South. He and his late wife were verbally and physically abused. He was only a garsún, a young man in government, but he did not flinch. My near neighbour, Gerard Collins, was a Minister for Justice and had to live with round the clock protection from these individuals, but he did not flinch. Paddy Cooney of the Minister of State's party did not flinch. We must never flinch and must be prepared to take on these measures. It is regrettable that the rights of an individual may be straitened or limited in some way, but for the greater good of society, my party will be four-square behind the Minister of State.