MINISTER RULES OUT QUICK FIX SOLUTION TO TERROR GROUPS
Minister rules out quick fix solution to terror groups
NO particular law can provide a cast iron guarantee that terrorist activity will cease or that terrorist attempts will not succeed, Justice Minister John O'Donoghue said yesterday.
Introducing the 1998 Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill in the Dail, the Minister said there were no simple solutions to the problems of terrorism - if there were, they would have been implemented 30 years ago.
Mr O'Donoghue said that the timing of such tough new measures was a matter of political judgment.
CARNAGE
"I think we should acknowledge that they are definitely now needed and represent an appropriate -and proportionate response to a terrorist grouping which has shown its willingness to commit carnage on a scale never witnessed before," he said.
The government, he said, had now changed the review mechanism for this new legislation and it would now cease to be operational on December 31, 2000, unless a resolution passed by each House of the Oireachtas stated otherwise.
Stressing that the new bill was only one element of a package of measures on the security and legislative fronts designed to counter the activities of those engaging in violence the Minister said that he intended to bring the provisions of the 1997 Ball Act into force in respect of persons charged before the Special Criminal Court.
BAIL
This was to allow the courts to take into account the possibility of the commission of offences if the person were granted bail in parallel with the passage of the new Offences Against the State Bill.
Fine Gael's Justice spokesman Jim Higgins said the country was now facing a major security emergency because legislation had been inadequate to deal with the mushrooming Real IRA.
"The reality is that this time last year the Real IRA was a small group, ill-equipped and isolated. If their identity was so well known why wasn't there round-the-clock surveillance on these people to monitor their location, their movements and their activities?" he asked.
DRUG BARONS
"These people should have been subjected to the"These people should have been subjected to the same vigilance and frustrations as meted out to the drug barons."he added.
Mr Higgins said what was particularly regrettable in the current climate after Omagh was the repeated failure of Sinn Fein to insist on decommissioning.
"Why should anybody require guns or explosives or access to them if they believe that the political process which is now under way has a meaning and a future?" Mr Higgins asked.
He said that the people who planted the Omagh bomb were trained by the Provisional IRA and there was absolutely no guarantee, that the Omagh atrocity would not be repeated.
NO particular law can provide a cast iron guarantee that terrorist activity will cease or that terrorist attempts will not succeed, Justice Minister John O'Donoghue said yesterday.
Introducing the 1998 Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill in the Dail, the Minister said there were no simple solutions to the problems of terrorism - if there were, they would have been implemented 30 years ago.
Mr O'Donoghue said that the timing of such tough new measures was a matter of political judgment.
CARNAGE
"I think we should acknowledge that they are definitely now needed and represent an appropriate -and proportionate response to a terrorist grouping which has shown its willingness to commit carnage on a scale never witnessed before," he said.
The government, he said, had now changed the review mechanism for this new legislation and it would now cease to be operational on December 31, 2000, unless a resolution passed by each House of the Oireachtas stated otherwise.
Stressing that the new bill was only one element of a package of measures on the security and legislative fronts designed to counter the activities of those engaging in violence the Minister said that he intended to bring the provisions of the 1997 Ball Act into force in respect of persons charged before the Special Criminal Court.
BAIL
This was to allow the courts to take into account the possibility of the commission of offences if the person were granted bail in parallel with the passage of the new Offences Against the State Bill.
Fine Gael's Justice spokesman Jim Higgins said the country was now facing a major security emergency because legislation had been inadequate to deal with the mushrooming Real IRA.
"The reality is that this time last year the Real IRA was a small group, ill-equipped and isolated. If their identity was so well known why wasn't there round-the-clock surveillance on these people to monitor their location, their movements and their activities?" he asked.
DRUG BARONS
"These people should have been subjected to the"These people should have been subjected to the same vigilance and frustrations as meted out to the drug barons."he added.
Mr Higgins said what was particularly regrettable in the current climate after Omagh was the repeated failure of Sinn Fein to insist on decommissioning.
"Why should anybody require guns or explosives or access to them if they believe that the political process which is now under way has a meaning and a future?" Mr Higgins asked.
He said that the people who planted the Omagh bomb were trained by the Provisional IRA and there was absolutely no guarantee, that the Omagh atrocity would not be repeated.
Further Information
Publisher: IRISH INDEPENDENT
Ref: II/216
Published Date: 03-Sep-98
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.