New Clause 2 - Mode of trial on indictment (no. 2)
Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Bill
12:00 pm
Shaun Woodward (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office; St Helens South, Labour)
I am sorry that I have to disagree with the hon. Member for Belfast, South (Dr. McDonnell). There are few matters in Northern Ireland that he and I disagree about in practical terms and, although I regret that he says he will have to vote against the Bill, I suspect that our disagreement is about shades of optimism rather than anything else.
We fervently wish that we did not have to renew the legislation. Our ambition would be to have achieved the enabling environment in which security normalisation made it possible for us to stand here today and say, “We believe that the security of the people in Northern Ireland is no different from the security of people elsewhere in the United Kingdom”. However, the instances given this morning by the hon. Member for Lagan Valley of the disruption caused at the racecourse last Saturday and at the Hillsborough oyster festival in the summer, the activities of dissidence, the feuding that took place throughout the summer and the events of Whiterock and other parades all sadly evince the fact that, although the situation is dramatically better than it was in the past—no police officer or prison officer has been murdered in several years and attacks on individuals and intimidation are still declining dramatically—it is still not at a level that would enable us to say there was security normalisation. For that reason, although I firmly share the goal that he and every other member of the Committee has for a time of calm, security and stability, we do not feel that we have attained it. It is our hope and our goal, but we are not there yet.