Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill

I shall come to that in a moment. The amendments would undermine the valuable process of scrutiny and debate that Parliament provides. The provisions would be continued in force until 2012 without the need for Parliament to consider the need for them each year or to approve their continued use. The abandonment of such reviews would be a retrograde step. Annual debate on part 7 provisions and their predecessors has been one of the key safeguards underlying part 7, and we would resist the amendments on that basis alone, as we believe that the annual review is extremely important. I want to go further than that in my observations, however. The hon. Member for East Londonderry is concerned about the pace of security normalisation and the continuing need for these provisions. In that regard, I want to comment on the remarks made by the hon. Member for Lagan Valley. We agree that we are not yet in a normal situation in Northern Ireland, and we agree that we need the terrorist threat to be removed. That is precisely why we believe that these special provisions need to be renewed in February next year, but we shall do that in the context of trying to preserve a careful balance with the objective of creating a normalised society. That is why we are creating an enabling environment. That goal is extremely important, but we equally accept that we have not reached it yet, which brings me back to my observation that it is essential to renew the provisions. This is about judgment, and, in our judgment, it is right to retain the provisions, in parallel with a belief that the future for Northern Ireland is, and should be, an optimistic one.