I welcome any announcement of a ceasefire by paramilitary organisations. It is particularly tragic, however, that this announcement was almost immediately followed by the murder of an innocent man and other terrorist activities.
With the political process now offering a new way forward, the futility and irrelevance of violence must, as I said in the House last week, increasingly be apparent and the permanent cessation of violence or support for it must surely now be considered by all those who wish to participate in the building of a new and agreed Ireland. It must be apparent to all those who advocate or perpetrate violence that their activities only bring sorrow, suffering and tragedy and are at total variance with the wishes of the vast majority of the men and women of this island.