Seanad report: It was time for Sinn Féin to endorse the new policing arrangements in Northern Ireland, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said. "It is also the case that the unionist parties, and particularly the DUP, have to accept when Sinn Féin makes that move that they will be part of those policing arrangements."
Opening a debate on Northern Ireland, Mr Ahern said he wished to emphasise that the reports of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) had confirmed, contrary to reports in some quarters, that a strategic decision to pursue politics via peaceful means had been taken by the IRA leadership, and that such a decision was not in question. These reports made a persuasive case for politics.
There was a tendency to under-estimate the serious threat of loyalist paramilitary groups "because we concentrate on the other side to a certain extent. The leaders of those groups are being challenged to follow the path that has clearly been taken by the IRA."
Noting that the IMC had highlighted some indications of continued criminality on the part of current or former IRA members, Mr Ahern said the Government could not ignore reports of intelligence-gathering that was illegal or was outside the bounds of conventional political activity.
Pointing out that he and the Northern Secretary would begin talks next Monday with the aim of setting out the arrangements for a restoration of the Northern institutions as soon as possible, he said they understood that people would not rush into an Executive. The next couple of months would be critical.
Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, said he believed that information gathered by the Provisional movement about members of the Houses of the Oireachtas was being used to fight political campaigns, to discredit opponents and to target certain politicians. He would remind the Provisionals that this was unacceptable, and that as long as it continued Sinn Féin would not be regarded as a normal political party.
Shane Ross (Ind) said while the IRA had given up its arms, it seemed to have handed over a legacy of criminality which was yielding an extraordinary amount of money.
He was worried that the Government was prepared to tolerate such behaviour in order to bring those involved further down the road to a political solution.
Martin Mansergh (FF) said he had not heard a more ludicrous suggestion than that made by Mr Ross. All the evidence of the last year was that the Government and its agencies had gone relentlessly after the Provisionals.