Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Northern Ireland – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 4 March 2009.
Andrew Robathan
Opposition Deputy Chief Whip (Commons)
11:30,
4 March 2009
But of course the Majority of dissident republicans used to be members of the Provisional IRA, which gained most of its money from extortion and other criminal activity while it carried out murder and terrorism. The Provisional IRA was inextricably linked to Sinn Fein, which now has Ministers in the Northern Ireland Government. Does the Minister believe that Sinn Fein ever benefited from criminal money and drug-related crime? What is his assessment of whether it still has connections with drug-related crime and other criminal activity?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
