Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill

I accept your direction, Madam Deputy Speaker. My point is that the need for this legislation relates to the environment in which we are operating. We do not accept the Minister’s argument that we are likely to have an enabling environment in two years’ time that will mean that the legislation can be repealed. Part of that enabling environment is whether or not people support the police and the rule of law. If they do not support the police and the rule of law, their predisposition to interfere with the judicial process, threaten, bully, cajole and perhaps engage in acts of violence against jurors and witnesses in legal proceedings is still there. The safeguards of the legislation therefore ought to remain extant. The Government ought to take that on board. I do not know what progress we are likely to make over the next two years. Certainly, I hope that Sinn Fein will finally accept the police and the rule of law in Northern Ireland, but we are not there yet. I do not therefore share the Minister’s confidence that by 2008 at the latest we will have an enabling environment whereby the provisions of the legislation will no longer be necessary. The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) mentioned the visit to London yesterday by the victims of the Omagh bombing. We welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has at long last met those people. They are entitled to a hearing and have real concerns, which we understand, and I hope that the Prime Minister will consider carefully the points made by that delegation yesterday. One of the things that struck me about that delegation was that its members seemed to welcome the fact that those who had been convicted, or might be convicted in future, of involvement in the Omagh bombing would not be subject to the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill, and would therefore not be able to bypass the judicial process. I believe that we are creating two standards of justice in Northern Ireland, based on an arbitrary line in the sand that was drawn on 10 April 1998. That will cause enormous problems for public confidence in the administration of justice. I hope that, even at this stage, the Government will reflect on the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill, and will withdraw from what I consider to be a potentially disastrous measure that will have a very detrimental effect on the judicial system in the part of the United Kingdom that I have the privilege to represent. I alluded earlier to the victims of violence. It is important for them to have confidence in the judicial process. The Bill makes special provision to ensure that justice is done and is seen to be done, which is important, but let me also mention one of the omissions from it. The Minister said that the police must have the necessary tools to take on and defeat terrorism, but one of the most important tools that they desire—