Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill

I entirely agree with you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was merely responding to comments made earlier across the Chamber which had drifted very wide of the mark. I felt that something should be said to refute them. One could argue, technically, if one wanted to be perfectly legalistic, that nothing in any Bill prevents anything from happening. The reality is, however, that I want to see normality restored, and I want that normality to be reflected in our laws. I want to get us to a point at which we do not need Diplock courts. They are used very rarely today, and we are moving towards a situation in which we shall not need them at all. Our view is that we should reach that stage by 2007. We can just about tolerate the measures being in place until 2008, but retaining them until 2012 would almost result in our going back into a war situation in which we had to keep war legislation on the statute book.