In the wake of its decision to reveal the graves of a number of its victims, the Provisional IRA should lift the fatwa on those it had ordered to leave Northern Ireland under threat of death, Mr Maurice Manning, Fine Gael leader in the House, said.
If the Provisionals were as concerned about human rights as they claimed to be, they might consider going this step further and lift the fatwa which affected so many people for a long period of time, he suggested.
Mr David Norris (Ind) said he was sickened by the IRA's claim to be acting on humanitarian grounds. "Have they no sense of irony? On the very day they are talking about these bodies, they have O'Connell Street plastered with posters saying, `Honour Ireland's Dead'." Honour of this kind should not be limited to a narrow republican band.
The leader of the Seanad, Mr Donie Cassidy, called on the IRA to disclose the whereabouts of all its victims.
Calling for a debate on the banks, Mr David Norris (Ind) said the profits made by these institutions were obscene. Some executives in Allied Irish Banks were getting over £1 million. "Yet we as taxpayers had to bail them out."
Mr Norris said he laughed when he saw these executives awarding themselves £1 million in profits and special directors' fees and all the rest of it.
Mr Joe Costello (Lab) said the banks were making colossal profits in terms of their top executives and corporate structure. "We should be looking for some claw back in relation to corporate taxes in view of the very dramatic reduction which has been given to the corporate sector, and particularly considering that the banks have not treated their employees very well in recent years."