Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill

I begin by returning my thanks to the Minister for the way in which he has dealt with the Bill. I raised a couple of issues in Committee, which by their detailed nature required him to write to me, and he duly did, explaining the situation fully. As a result, I did not pursue the matters further. I think I can speak for a number of hon. Members when I say that there is some confusion about how the Government assess the situation in Northern Ireland. On the one hand we have the on-the-runs legislation, which suggests that the bad situation that we have had in Northern Ireland for so very long is coming to an end. On the other hand we have Bills such as this, which by their very introduction would suggest that the situation in Northern Ireland is not as it should be. The Opposition regret the need to introduce the Bill. We wish that we had normality in the Province. On every occasion I have visited the Province over many years, it has been made clear that one of the very things that people want is to be treated normally, both politically and with regard to the security situation. However, we accept that it is not possible at the moment to move towards that. As a number of hon. Members have said, particularly those from the DUP, there is great concern at the fact that the violence continues. The nature of the violence has changed, but the violence continues. I quoted the recent IMC report in Committee, and I shall quote it again:"““The involvement of paramilitaries in organised crime goes deep.””" That is a great concern. The report continues:"““We have concluded that because of this paramilitary involvement organised crime is the biggest long term threat to the rule of law in Northern Ireland . . . The criminals are flexible and resilient.””" Those words are sufficient to chill most people. Such comments are very worrying, and I think that they persuaded DUP Members to press their amendment, which suggested that the provisions of the Terrorism Act should be extended not only to 2008, but to 2012.