I greatly appreciate the opportunity to raise this issue today and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, for coming to the House.
This week the House of Commons intelligence and security committee released a report on the risk of terrorism in Northern Ireland. The report found that a hard border would be highly likely to lead to an increase in terrorist attacks and any border structure would be a target for such attacks. That is no surprise to the Minister of State, me or anyone who has been following discussions on Brexit over the past few years.
Today, we saw further evidence before the House of Commons Northern Irish affairs committee where academics have once again stressed the point made previously by the former US Senator George Mitchell, former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and many others.
The report rates a threat of violence from dissident republicans as severe with the New IRA the most widespread dissident republican group. This is a worrying fact on many fronts. It is worrying for people who will be affected by these attacks, the families who will be torn apart by such violence and for those people on both sides of the Border who have lived in relative peace for over 20 years.
This past summer we saw excellent work by An Garda Síochána which contributed to the arrest by the PSNI of nine members of the New IRA. These arrests led to sentencing of the effective army council of the New IRA. While this is welcome, it is quite clear the threat has not gone away. As per the report laid before the committee in Westminster earlier this week, we see an increasing amount of co-operation between the leadership and membership of the New IRA and the Continuity IRA. While many people once referred to these dissident republican terrorists as disparate criminal gangs working sometimes against each other, this new level of co-ordination should not be taken for granted. Any hard border could be used as a recruitment tactic for these groups, preying on disenfranchised youths on both sides of the Border and fanning the flames of anger and violence which have been diminishing since the Good Friday Agreement.
Dissident threats lie on both sides of the political divide. In this report, there is a worrying reference to loyalist paramilitary activity increasing, particularly around certain parts of Belfast. It does not really matter where it happens on this island. It is a concern for the Government and the agents of the State regardless.
We have been lucky to have such widespread support from our European colleagues to ensure there is no hardening of the Border on this island. However, we cannot pretend that threat has not gone away. With the UK's Internal Market Bill, we see the risk to the withdrawal agreement and the protocol that were designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to ensure the Border remains seamless. We have to be extremely aware that any further efforts to diminish that withdrawal agreement and undermine those protocols could provide opportunities to which we need to be alert.
What supports are being given? What response has the Government to these two reports laid before the relevant committees in Westminster this week?