Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his explanation of the Northern Ireland terrorism Bill. In the Province there are many like me who have difficulty coming to terms with the need for this Bill at a time when the ““war is over”” according to the Government. In a Written Answer of yesterday the Government described the IRA statement of 25 September as historic. On the other hand, in the same batch of Answers to Questions I learn that to provide security for many homes has cost £45 million in five years and that the cost has gone up each year. The news is full of the fall-out from the Stormontgate spy issue and more is revealed each day. The legislation may unfortunately be required and I agree with its introduction in this form. However, the Government should have introduced measures to confront the new threat of white collar terrorism. Earlier this year I informed your Lordships’ House about a number of issues concerning IRA supporters in the Republic—in particular about Frank Connolly and the Centre for Public Inquiry. The events of the past few weeks have proved me to have been all too correct. But the last two weeks have also highlighted the possible extent of the web of IRA/Sinn Fein sleepers and spies in both governmental systems and in other places of influence. How can measures in this Bill help to expose the many IRA sleepers who are in the decision-making process in Northern Ireland? Security sources tell me that they believe that there are about 200 sleepers and/or spies in high places in the Republic—right up to the Irish Prime Minister’s office. For decades the IRA and Sinn Fein have been infiltrating the media in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. One of the Republic’s main graduate journalism courses, in Griffith College Dublin, is run by Niall Meehan, a long-serving Sinn Fein official, and by that party’s general secretary, Robbie Smyth. Neither has worked on any mainstream newspaper or broadcasting station. The NUJ executive in Dublin also includes Ronan Brady, whose experience in journalism is largely limited to his time on Sinn Fein’s newspaper Republican News, an organ which glorified the murderous exploits of the IRA in its ““War News”” section. That much of the media is now infiltrated and influenced by Sinn Fein/IRA can be seen in the highly negative reaction in sections of the southern media, in particular the state broadcaster RTE, against the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, when he outed and denounced Frank Connolly—one of the Republic’s most prominent journalists—as an IRA fellow traveller who, as I pointed out in your Lordships’ House in June, joined one of the IRA’s top bomb-makers, Padraig Wilson, on a secret trip to Colombia in June 2001 under a false passport. It is not a coincidence that, instead of being lauded for his actions, the Minister for Justice of the Irish Republic found himself the subject of a campaign of vilification in the Irish media. The worst example of biased coverage has been that of the RTE. In view of the past two weeks, perhaps it is time that two very senior RTE officials explained their extreme republican backgrounds. Gerry Adams said recently that all British and Irish spies in the IRA/Sinn Fein must be removed. I say to Gerry Adams: what about the IRA/Sinn Fein spies in the establishment, who the Irish police, the Garda, call Gerry Adams’s secret army? Will he be unveiling and removing his people? I have been concerned for some time about an Irish-only policy being adopted by sections of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. This means that anything Irish gets support; anything that is not Irish is held up. The massive payments to nationalist festivals each year and very little to non-Irish events is an example that I have discussed with the Minister and shall return to again. In broad terms, I support the Bill.