Gay Mitchell
Question:47 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the discussions he has had with Northern representatives concerning the right of people forced to leave the North by paramilitary groups to return home. [10178/03]
Ceisteanna – Questions (Resumed). Priority Questions. - Northern Ireland Issues.
The Government has consistently condemned the practice of paramilitary "exiling" of people from their place of residence as an abuse of their human rights. The right of all citizens to freely choose where they wish to live is a fundamental right which has been recognised in the Good Friday Agreement. The breaching of this right by paramilitary groups is abhorrent and unjustifiable. I have frequently called on all political parties associated with paramilitary organisations to make every effort to get those organisations to desist and to ensure that all exiles, wherever they currently reside, can return safely to their homes.
This is a problem which affects both communities and the demand that such activity should cease applies to all paramilitary groups, both loyalist and republican. According to BASE 2, a crisis intervention service for individuals and families placed under paramilitary threat in Northern Ireland, republican paramilitaries have been responsible for one third, and loyalist paramilitary groups for some two thirds, of threats over the past four years. Official security statistics also show that there has been a similar breakdown in terms of responsibility for punishment shootings and assaults in recent years.
In seeking to end such practices, it is important that we also understand the context in which they have occurred. Over the past 30 years of conflict, such practices have mainly occurred within communities, both loyalist and republican, where a deep distrust of the police exists. As with other difficult issues we have had to address throughout the peace process, this can only be resolved satisfactorily by addressing all the causal factors. It is the Government's consistent position, therefore, that we can best tackle the problem of exiling and punishment attacks by working to end all paramilitary activities, by developing confidence in the rule of law and the administration of justice and by building community wide support for policing, particularly through the implementation of the Patten recommendations. In short, we can best tackle this problem through the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Since last October, both Governments and the pro-Agreement parties have been intensively engaged in talks aimed at achieving the acts of completion necessary to fully and rapidly implement all aspects of the Agreement. Considerable progress has been made across a range of difficult issues in this regard. The Taoiseach and the Prime Minister will return to Hillsborough tomorrow to formally present their final set of proposals.
Throughout these recent discussions and throughout this entire process we have had as our overriding objective a peaceful and fair society, enjoying stable government, normal policing arrangements and the fair and equitable administration of justice for the benefit of the entire community. There is no room in that vision for paramilitarism from any quarter of the community. If we are finally to see the fulfilment of the Agreement we must see all paramilitary activities brought to a definitive end. The practice of exiling must also come to an end and exiles must feel free to return in safety.
Is it the Minister's expectation that there will be a radical IRA move signalling its complete cessation as an active paramilitary organisation following tomorrow's meeting? Will the Minister accept that in a normalised society there is no place for self appointed vigilantes administering their own perverted forms of justice, whether they are so-called loyalist or republican movements and whether that be through punishment beatings or the expulsion of people from communities under the threat of such beatings or worse? Will this issue be clearly addressed in the two Governments' proposals tomorrow and will the political parties and their military wings be asked to give clear pledges on these matters?
Does the Minister accept that the time has come for Sinn Féin, the only party refusing to take its seats on the policing board, to take those seats and in this way contribute to the building of confidence in the new beginning for policing in Northern Ireland? With regard to building confidence in a new beginning, what discussions have been held with a view to minimising the potential for violence and disorder associated with the forthcoming marching season?
With regard to tomorrow, I cannot pre-empt or preface the outcome of discussions which are not yet in the public domain but will be shortly. The purpose of the detailed and intensive set of discussions and negotiations over the past five months has been to bring about a situation where the full, final and faithful implementation of the Agreement is set out in detail by both Governments and where acts of completion, as envisaged in the Taoiseach's and the Prime Minister's statements last October, are brought about. In that context, we want to see those acts of completion which give sufficient confidence and trust to the process to allow us to move in due course from a peace process to a peace settlement. From the Government's point of view, that work continues as we speak.
With regard to vigilantism, these practices are not characteristic of a normalised democratic society and have no place in such a society. The purpose of the policing reforms and the criminal justice administration changes is to bring about a situation where both traditions give full affiliation and allegiance to a fair and equitable system of justice, administered equally to all citizens. One expects and hopes, therefore, that the proposals being devised by the Governments, as a result of the discussions with the parties, provide further trust and confidence that the vision for policing set out in the Patten report can become a reality in which a democratically accountable, representative police force will provide the necessary policing arrangements in a divided society.
The Deputy asked a further question about policing. That is best secured when there is full representation of all the parties under the Patten arrangements on the policing board mechanism set out in the policing Acts enacted by Westminster.
These decisions will be taken by parties in their own way, based on their consideration of the proposals to be devised and published by the Governments. I am hopeful that they will provide an enabling context in which all these matters can be constructively addressed in due course.
As regards the question about the marching season, one would hope that the developments we would all like to see arising from the work of the Governments and the parties will include: a restoration of the necessary trust and confidence; the provision of a context in which the pro-Agreement parties can competitively, but constructively, go to the electorate for support; and, in the aftermath of the assembly elections on 29 May, the restoration of the assembly and the full implementation of the Agreement in all its insti tutional architecture. That will provide a stable background against which many of these marches can proceed without controversy or problems. In areas where there have been problems, one must emphasise the need for dialogue, understanding and real interaction between those who wish to march and the residents who do not give their consent to marches going through their communities. The consent principle must apply, therefore. If we approach all those issues creatively and constructively they are amenable to solution.
May I ask a question?
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
We have now gone almost three minutes over the time allotted for this question. The Deputy may ask a very brief question.
The Minister referred to exiles, but what is the total number of so-called exiles from Northern Ireland?
I do not have those details in the supplementary information, although I provided them recently to the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body. In terms of that particular report, I think 683 threats of exile were made in respect of the period examined under phase 2, which was during the previous three years. I will obtain the details for the Deputy.