I thank my constituency colleague, Deputy Eoin Ryan, for giving me the opportunity to address this important topic in the House. The time has come for all true republicans and democrats to stand up and be counted. I realise I have presented some serious challenges to the Sinn Féin leadership in terms of the provisional movement attempting to have it both ways, and to it being accepted as an orthodox political party on the one hand and, on the other, having at best an ambivalent attitude to criminality and violence. Specifically, my comments on "Morning Ireland" earlier this week related to persons associated with the provisional movement being involved in ongoing criminal activity in Dublin Port.
Those comments, and others of a more general nature, were not conjured up out of the air. It is without doubt that Sinn Féin and the IRA are two sides of the same coin. We hear few outside Sinn Féin itself seriously disputing that contention. I should in fairness point out, however, that my remarks on Dublin Port should not be taken as a direct reference to those who would be associated in the public mind in this part of Ireland with the leadership of Sinn Féin.
The briefings I receive from security sources strongly confirm the links between the IRA and Sinn Féin. In my view, the public is entitled to know that there is rock solid intelligence confirmation for what it has always strongly suspected. However, to suggest that, having provided this confirmation, I am then somehow obliged to disclose the precise nature of the intelligence briefings I receive from the Garda amounts to a flawed reasoning of "put up or shut up". No democrat should shut up on a real and sinister threat to the integrity of the democratic process, nor should any democrat have to put up with the mixture of violence and crime with politics.
I will not be drawn, on the basis of such flawed "put up or shut up" reasoning, into disclosing the nuts and bolts of the security briefings given to me as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, especially when such briefings relate to ongoing paramilitary activity, engagement in punishment beatings or criminal activity undertaken for personal gain. As my predecessors have before me, I rely heavily on the ability of the Garda Síochána to establish the extent of the continuing threat to the security of the State from paramilitary groups and others who, by their actions, threaten our democratic process. As a Minister privy to sensitive information, sometimes relating to the safety and security of the State, I do not intend in any way to hamper the continuing efforts of the Garda Síochána to deal effectively with such threats. It would be irresponsible of me if I were to disclose sensitive details of Garda security operations, aimed as they are at ensuring the protection of our hard-won rights and freedoms.
That, however, does not mean I should not or cannot share with all decent and law-abiding citizens the conclusions to be made from such security briefings. That is why I will not be deterred from saying that the IRA is engaged in ongoing serious crime and paramilitarism and that, unless it desists now from that activity, it will not be possible to convince other parties, especially the parties in Northern Ireland, that they should participate as equal and trusting partners with Sinn Féin in fully working the Good Friday Agreement.
The point of my speaking out on these issues is not, as some would argue, to undermine a political party or gain some short-term electoral advantage. That misses the point. What I and other responsible politicians are saying, is that Sinn Féin and the IRA are two sides of the same coin. If one side is rightly condemned because of criminal activity or continuing paramilitarism, the other will stand ineligible when it comes to sharing political office, whether in Northern Ireland or, at some future stage, in this jurisdiction.
I note that Deputy Eoin Ryan and I have one thing in common, apart from representing the same constituency. Both of us come from families that made considerable personal sacrifices in the process of establishing and building up the Irish Republic. It is not anti-republican, nor would it be anti-Sinn Féin, nor is it hostile to the peace process to point out what needs to be done by the IRA to convince all shades of Nationalist and Unionist persuasion that Sinn Féin is eligible to participate as a full and equal partner in the day-to-day running of the affairs of Northern Ireland or is eligible to do so in this State. It is much more in keeping with genuine republican traditions and values to tell the truths that need to be told, even if, at times, they are a source of discomfort to parties who pretend not to hear them.
There are important lessons that we can learn from history of the mortal dangers of combining in one movement a political ideology and violence. As long as the republican movement, as it calls itself — I regard Sinn Féin as having nothing to do with republican values — maintains an à la carte approach towards political activity and violence, the general public has every reason to be extremely wary about lending any electoral support to Sinn Féin.
I do not doubt that some in Sinn Féin have made and continue to make genuine efforts to shake off the shackles of the past. Perhaps too, the transition from paramilitary to parliamentary politics may in the past have needed a period of constructive ambiguity. However, as Deputy Eoin Ryan points out, almost six years after the Good Friday Agreement, any further ambiguity on paramilitary activity is destructive ambiguity. The day the leadership of Sinn Féin manages to convince everybody that the shadow of the gunman is genuinely fading forever is the day that genuine and stable politics will replace violence and instability in Northern Ireland. That is the day that full democratic politics will reign supreme and I earnestly look forward to it.
As an Irish republican who works towards and aspires to the unification of this country and the reconciliation of the people in both parts of it, I know that we have now arrived at the bare bedrock of the problems that prevent the complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Provisional paramilitarism is and remains a deadly threat to that Agreement. I am saying, and I know Deputy Eoin Ryan agrees with me, it must end now.