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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 17 Oct 1991

Vol. 411 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Closure of Lifford-Strabane Road.

Security on this island demands the co-operation of the security forces on both sides of the Border if we are to root out those people who cause so much trouble, destruction and death on this island, in particular in Northern Ireland. However, I believe the British Army are going too far in closing this Border crossing.

As someone who uses this crossing very frequently I can tell the House that when the barriers were being constructed passersby laughed with amusement. Whose idea was it to put poles across the road to stop passing traffic during certain hours of darkness and the day? The only conclusion I can come to is that faceless people in Whitehall, in the belief that they had the answer to the war against subversion in Ireland, decided this was the way it should be done. It is akin to Checkpoint Charlie, which divided the city of Berlin, between Lifford and Strabane. As someone who grew up in the town of Lifford, unfortunately I have to say that the people of Lifford, County Donegal, can travel the length and breadth of Europe without being stopped, indeed, they can go as far as Moscow, but they cannot go to Strabane. The same applies to people from Strabane, which was in the same parish up until recently. The people of Strabane can travel the length and breadth of Europe, the length and breadth of Great Britain and indeed the length and breadth of Ireland, but they cannot travel across to Lifford because of the decision taken by some faceless person in Whitehall, probably in a carpeted, centrally heated room, who plays ducks and drakes with markers and who has never been to Ireland except perhaps on a flying visit when he went back with preconceived ideas on what was happening and convinced he has the solution to it.

I ask the Minister to make representations to the British authorities and to point out to them that we have the will to co-operate fully with the British Government in keeping the peace in both parts of Ireland but we will not tolerate Irish people on both sides of the Border being inconvenienced. I question whether this is within the terms of the Anglo-lrish Treaty of 1922 or the Anglo-Irish Agreement. It is certainly not in keeping with the spirit of either those agreements that the British Army authorities should unilaterally take a decision to close the Border at the drop of a hat.

Two weeks ago on my way home I arrived at the checkpoint at Strabane at 10.10 p.m. to take my place in the queue of cars. I was in no rush to be checked. I will tolerate that in the interests of security but I discovered after about ten minutes that there was something more serious involved than just a short delay. The driver of one of the cars in front of me came to the same conclusion. He then found out that the first car contained no driver and was just sitting there with sidelights on. I went to the checkpoint to inquire what was happening at 10.20 p.m., only to be told that the Border had been closed for the night and I would have to go via Clady. That is an inconvenient way to travel across the Border. There is a very narrow street in the village of Clady and one has to drive through a very narrow checkpoint and over a very dangerous bridge which is not capable of taking heavy tonnage. It took me an hour and three quarters to cross the Border, a journey which should have taken me two or three minutes.

On that occasion I discovered elderly people who had long distances to travel after they had crossed the Border, cars containing young children who were crying and becoming uneasy and whose parents were being subjected to this inconvenience. The British Army in trying to beat the IRA are abusing the ordinary people who cross at the checkpoint on the Lifford and Strabane Road. I want to put on the record that all they have achieved is that they have created a target for the IRA to destroy. Knowing the people involved on the fringes of violence and the way they think, the minute that checkpoint was constructed they were thinking of how to destroy it. If it was not there that challenge would not be there.

I would be grateful if the Deputy would bring his remarks to a close.

Some day there will be a holocaust when a bomb will be placed at Strabane to destroy this checkpoint. In the interests of the safety of the people, good public relations and all that is good in people, I ask the Minister to make a special case to the British authorities to stop this awful infringement of the rights of people to cross the Border between Lifford and Strabane, which I have been able to do right through my lifetime. That was the first time I was stopped going across the Border. I have been delayed but never stopped.

I am grateful and thankful to Deputy Harte for raising this very serious problem. I have noted carefully the details of the situation as described by him. I fully sympathise with the points he has raised concerning the disruption and the inconvenience caused to people and to himself in the Strabane-Lifford area by the unannounced closure of the British Army permanent vehicle checkpoint in Strabane on a number of occasions during the past few months. I am particularly conscious of the difficulties caused to people——

Every night of the week, Minister.

Let us hear the Minister out.

——who have to go through this checkpoint on their way to and from work on either side of the Border. As Deputy Harte said, while we all appreciate the need for appropriate security measures to counter the threat of proxy bomb attacks, I am also concerned that people going about their lawful business and travelling to and from work should not be subjected to unreasonable disruption and inconvenience as a result of these measures.

I can confirm that my Department have recently received a number of complaints about the unannounced closure of the British Army checkpoint in Strabane at various times over the past few weeks. These complaints, which are similar in many respects to those raised by Deputy Harte, have already been raised with the British authorities through the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in Belfast. I can assure Deputy Harte that the concerns which he has expressed here tonight will be conveyed immediately to the British authorities through the Anglo-Irish Secretariat with a view to ensuring that the checkpoint is operated in a sensible and flexible manner so as to keep the inconvenience to the local community to the absolute minimum.

Deputy Harte pointed out that there were problems with this checkpoint last winter when it was frequently closed at night as a precautionary measure against the danger of proxy bomb attacks. The problems caused by this practice were discussed at the meeting of the Anglo-Irish Inter-governmental Conference in January of this year and were the subject of further discussions in the Anglo-Irish Secretariat. As Deputy Harte is aware, there were very few problems with the operation of this checkpoint over the summer months and it is only recently that complaints have begun to emerge again. As I have already pointed out, these complaints have been raised with the British authorities through the Anglo-Irish Secretariat and appropriate representations will continue to be made with a view, as Deputy Harte suggested, towards keeping the inconvenience caused to the local community to the minimum. I can assure Deputy Harte that the situation will be monitored and kept under review in the secretariat on a continuing basis.

Deputy Harte suggested in the course of his remarks that there should be a permanent Garda-Army checkpoint at Lifford Bridge which would remove the need for a British Army checkpoint in Strabane. The Minister for Justice set out in a detailed way the policy of the Government on this issue when replying to the Deputy's question on the Adjournment on 15 November 1990. Unfortunately, I have nothing to add to the Minister's comments on that matter: "... it is strictly a matter of the best police professional advice, in relation to the use of resources to their maximum effect for the protection and benefit of the community....". However, I can assure Deputy Harte that his personal experiences which he has related to the House this evening and are typical of many which have happened in recent times will be related to the secretariat.

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