Statements on Northern Ireland Issues - 2nd February 2006

Statements on Northern Ireland Issues – 2nd February 2006

Mr. Norris: I agree with the distribution of bouquets
on which my colleagues have embarked but
I would also give bouquets to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, for his
determination in the matter, to Dr. Garret
FitzGerald and to Mr. Albert Reynolds, who
played a crucial significant role. I would also
include even Mr. Blair, whose blundering bull in
a china shop attitude towards Iraq is such a contrast
trast
to the progress he has made on Northern
Ireland.
On what the Minister said about the transition
to a political solution, I absolutely agree. He said
that the IRA’s move away from military activity
must be sustained but it is up to us to encourage
that by welcoming rather than begrudging the
imaginative way in which the move has happened.
I certainly welcome the move. The Minister also
referred to loyalist paramilitaries, which I believe
are a real problem. There has been a drop-off to
virtually nil in things such as punishment beatings
by the provisional movement but the same is not
true of the loyalist paramilitaries. As one who
comes from a Unionist background in this part of
the country, I condemn and deplore what is being
done by the loyalist paramilitaries, who are
neither loyal nor Protestant or Christian in any
sense. They stand roundly condemned.
The reinstatement of democratic rule through
representative institutions in the North of Ireland
is important. It is interesting that politicians on
all sides are hungering for that but it is curious
that the voters, I gather, do not really care any
more. That needs to be addressed, because it is
important that the institutions are reinstated. One
way in which we could help that is by living up to
our obligations on cross-Border co-operation. As
Senator McHugh highlighted last week, the
extension of the railway line from Northern
Ireland to Letterkenny was suggested by the British.
We should also push co-operation of that sort
as well.
I note the disjunction between the IMC and
General de Chastelain. I am not a conspiracy theorist,
but I point out that several newspapers
remarked on the fact that the information, which
was a bit vague, was supplied by the PSNI and
MI5. To my mind, that puts a question mark
over it.
It is interesting that the DUP has come up with
the idea of a shadow Assembly. That should be
explored. I very much welcome the fact that Jeffrey
Donaldson and other such people whom I
regard as very dour come down here to appear
on “Questions and Answers” where they have an
opportunity to experience at first hand the audience’s
response. I am sure it is good for those
politicians to hear people with strong Dublin
accents take a view that is not entirely dissimilar
to their own.
On the issue of whether the paramilitaries are
like the Mafia, I have said for a long time that
the similarities are obvious. The Mafia emerged
from a similar background in which people who
had fought for the rights of the oppressed then
entered criminality. A real problem is that
middle-aged people who have spent their whole
life in an aura of excitement in which they have
been involved in bank robberies and so on were
presumably paid from some central source. If that
source is just cut off, what do those people do? I
think we need to bite the bullet and make some
accommodation by, if appropriate, bringing them
into some kind of policing role or make allowance
for some kind of payment to them. I do not know
how, but those people will need to be weaned
away.
Acting Chairman (Labhra´s O´ Murchu´ ):
Senator Norris has one minute remaining.
Mr. Norris: I believe the situation is generally
pretty hopeful but progress will be gradual. It is
significant that DUP representatives regularly
appear on our airwaves to discuss, in a way that
is not notably hostile, serious political issues with
Southern politicians. That is the way forward and
I am glad to live in a time when such an historic
shift is taking place.