Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on internment in Northern Ireland. [8876/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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We all have an obligation to use language responsibly and in particular to be careful with the use of terms such as internment. Internment in 1971 resulted in the detention without trial of over three hundred people who were arrested and held in conditions which contravened the accepted standards of international law at that time. Today we find ourselves in a situation where justice and security arrangements have largely been devolved to the Northern Ireland assembly, significant changes have been introduced to the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the circumstances at present simply do not bear comparison with 1971.