The temporary release from prison of the Balcombe Street gang to attend the resumed Sinn Fein Ardfheis on Sunday could put the Northern Ireland peace deal at risk, the Alliance Party leader, Lord Alderdice, told the Lords yesterday.
Lord Alderdice demanded at Question Time: "Does the government understand that these so-called risks in aid of the settlement are beginning to become something more of a risk to the settlement?"
He spoke as peers called for the early release of Scots Guardsmen Jim Fisher and Mark Wright, jailed for life in 1992 for shooting dead a Belfast teenager.
Lord Alderdice, who took part in the peace talks, said: "These questions are entirely natural on a weekend after convicted terrorists are released to attend a political meeting.
"Such concerns are but a pale shadow of the wave of concern that is sweeping Northern Ireland because of a perception that the incessant and insatiable demands of paramilitary parties always seem to take precedence over the reasonable requirements of democratically-elected parties, law-abiding citizens and even sometimes justice itself."
The junior Northern Ireland minister, Lord Dubs, told peers: "It was judged helpful to the peace process if the views of a limited number of prisoners could be heard."