Seanad Report: Bobby Sands was a criminal, Mr Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, said. The complete difference between him and Mrs Jean McConville was that he had chosen the time of his own death.
The 1,800 people killed by the IRA had had no say in the timing of their deaths.
Mr Hayes praised Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, for having given a direct answer when asked recently by a Sinn Féin representative if he considered Mr Sands to have been a criminal. "The fact that he was on hunger strike was his own choice," said Mr Hayes. "It was a terrible tragedy for him and for his family, but it was his decision."
The strong language used by the Taoiseach about the IRA in the Dáil last Wednesday was praiseworthy, but it was also necessary to take strong actions as well, Mr Hayes said.
"We have to redouble our efforts to find out where their arsenals are. We have to put surveillance people on them."
There was a view that because the peace process had been allowed to dominate the agenda, "we had gone soft on them". How many recent large-scale finds of explosives had been made, asked Mr Hayes.
Mr McDowell, who replied to the Second Stage debate on the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Bill, said it was a matter of great import for the future of Irish democracy that there should be a clear understanding among the public that their democratically-elected politicians uphold the Constitution, the authority of the State and the values and the rights that subtended our Constitution and would not allow them to be swept away by anybody's political project.
"Therefore, I make no apology for taking a strong stance against the attempts by the Provisional movement to pervert the Irish constitutional process and the democratic process on this island and to trample down democratic values and use every means at its disposal, foul and fair, to advance its project without regard to the rights of others and to democratic values.
Mr McDowell said that if people wished to seek election to assemblies north or south of the Border or to represent themselves as people seeking a mandate, they must do so within a constitutional framework and whether it was North or South, that constitutional framework was based on constitutional values.
"There is no room in government, North or South, for anybody under any circumstances who would countenance the use of violence or illegality for political purposes. There is no room for those who, because of their ideological convictions, cannot distinguish between what is and is not an infringement of the law."