Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Offences against the State Act came into being for a simple reason, namely, that there were and continue to be people who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of this State. Such people fought and continue to fight to subvert and disrupt the effective administration of law and order. The Act was in place in the 1970s to fight the sort of people who felt they were justified to shoot and beat to death a Member of these Houses. Billy Fox at 35 had served as a Deputy for the then constituency of Monaghan and subsequently as a Senator. He had a lot more to offer his country. His killers, members of the IRA, did not care that he had a mandate from his electorate. They killed him because he was a Protestant.

The Act was in place in the 1980s to fight the sort of people who shot someone to death because he was a prison officer. Brian Stack was shot in the neck from behind by members of the Provisional IRA as he left a boxing match in Dublin. He was killed because he was doing his job upholding justice in this State. Likewise in the 1980s, the Act was in place to fight the sort of people who shot a soldier on duty. Private Patrick Kelly, a native of the town of Moate in my home county of Westmeath, was a member of the Irish Army, Óglaigh na hÉireann, the only legitimate armed force in the State. Private Kelly was killed while he was involved in the rescue of a kidnapping victim, businessman Don Tidey. The Act was in place in the 1990s to fight the sort of people who deliberately shot a member of An Garda Síochána. Garda Jerry McCabe was brutally gunned down while he sat in his car doing his duty upholding the laws of this State. Then, in 2009, we were treated to Deputy Martin Ferris acting as a welcoming committee on the release from prison of those who murdered Jerry McCabe and the sickening display of support from his Sinn Féin colleagues for those brutish cowards.

Even in the present day, although the IRA has given up its campaign of violence, the unfortunate reality is that not all who were involved in that campaign have followed suit. A rump of violent dissident republicans still vehemently oppose peace and democracy and still refuse to recognise the legitimacy of the State. They have spent 20 years trying to destroy the Good Friday Agreement and all it stands for. We must not let them succeed. If this was not bad enough, they are now being joined by organised criminal gangs with similar disdain for law and order. These are gangs that order shootings at will, intimidate witnesses and jurors in an attempt to undermine trials, and terrorise and intimidate communities. They are armed and dangerous and they themselves think they are above the law.

It is exasperating to hear the sort of people who attack the Act saying it impinges on people's rights. What rights were offered to Billy Fox, Jerry McCabe, Brian Stack or Patrick Kelly? The same people go on to criticise the Special Criminal Court-----