This Bill was passed in the Dáil at 7 p.m. yesterday. To expect it to be passed by this House in under two days is not a satisfactory situation, especially if it is as important as this Bill is. I realise that in this case there were special circumstances; but the situation is not satisfactory, although we do agree to it.
It is also unsatisfactory that our spokesperson and a number of other Members have still not received copies of the Bill as it was not in the post this morning. This is placing some people at a disadvantage. However, I accept the comments of the Leader of the House that this is not standard practice, nor, in fairness to him, has it been.
This may appear to be over-repetitive, but eight terrorist attacks have taken place in Northern Ireland over three or four days, which resulted in seven or eight deaths. These random, pointless, barbaric, tit for tat killings must bring enormous sadness to the hearts of people on all sides of the House. All sides in Northern Ireland find themselves in a position of helplessness with regard to finding an end to the violence and bringing about meaningful political progress. What we in this House can do is very limited, but I appeal to the Leader to seek to make time available in the near future for a full debate on Northern Ireland. There is a now a realisation that there has been no response to the generous impulses behind the Downing Street Declaration and that there is little hope of any real progress. All of us would like to apply our minds to seeing if we could offer some help to both Governments in finding a way forward.
