Before I announce the Order of Business for today, may I just remark that the Seanad is sitting at a time when the nation is under a cloud because of a number of incidents which happened during the past number of weeks on this island? First, it behoves me to send a very sincere and deep expression of sympathy to the relatives and friends of those who died in the carnage in Enniskillen in the past few days. There is nobody in the world — and it does not make any difference from what side of politics they come or from what country they come — who could not but abhor the cruel murder of the people of Enniskillen.
Not alone was there the cruel murder of the people of Enniskillen, but there was also an attempted murder of children on the same day in the west of the North of Ireland, where a bomb did not go off. There were attempts on the lives of other people in the North on the same day. The sympathy of this House has to be expressed, as I have said, to the people who are directly involved and to the families of those who died and, indeed, to the families of those whose injuries will be with them for the rest of their lives. Sympathy must be extended equally to the people of the North of Ireland. We must assure them that there is nobody in this House who could express anything but abhorrence for what happened. It was not done in our name. Nobody can suggest it was. Equally, we must ensure that in the coming weeks nothing we do will give any sympathy, or sign of sympathy or help, to the perpetrators of that hideous crime.
When I say that, we have to refer to the cruel interference by kidnappers with the health of dentist John O'Grady. Savages would not perpetrate the injuries that were done to him. We must admit that throughout this country there is a very small minority of people who helped in the carrying out of that kidnap, whether it was by supplying safe houses, or by not going to the Garda and suggesting that they were in the areas, or by supplying motor vehicles. It is a fact that motor vehicles were used as decoys in many areas. There were a very small number of people involved.
I sincerely hope that people outside the country or, indeed, people inside the country would not consider that the people who were involved in that kidnap had the sympathy of anybody. They are butchers, terrorists and people who have no regard for law and definitely no regard for life. The problems we have in this country will not be resolved by getting down to the level of animals. Animals only, we have to say, would carry out the indiscriminate killing and the indiscriminate carnage that happened over the past couple of weeks.
In conclusion, I wish to say I sincerely hope that never again will I have to stand up in this House and express sympathy or emotion for the people of any part of Ireland because of crimes such as those that were committed over the past few days.