Oireachtas

Tanaiste renews his call for end to paramilitary punishment beatings

THE TANAISTE renewed his call for an end to paramilitary punishment beatings in the North.

Thu Mar 20 1997 - 00:00

THE TANAISTE renewed his call for an end to paramilitary punishment beatings in the North.

"The Government's position on this matter is clear and unambiguous," Mr Spring said. "Such acts are totally reprehensible and anti democratic practices, and they should be brought to an immediate end. The actions of those involved in organising and carrying them out is repugnant and entirely inconsistent with the rule of law."

The Tanaiste was replying to Mr Des O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) who said such attacks had increased in intensity during the 18 months of the IRA ceasefire. They were not indicative of people who were prepared to resort to normal political activity but, rather, sought to get their way by violent means.

He urged Mr Spring to use the Government's influence with Sinn Fein and the two smaller loyalist parties "to try to bring this barbarity which besmirches the whole name of Ireland to an end immediately".

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Mr Spring said that the beatings were outside the rule of law. "And I would say that people engaged in punishment attacks are acting contrary to the spirit and principles underlying any prospect of establishing peace on this island. And that applies whether it is in Northern Ireland or, indeed, in the South."

Mr O'Malley said matters associated with such activity, such as the purported banishment of people from the North, should end, and in particular the bodies of dozens of people who had been murdered by either republican or loyalist activists should be uncovered and restored to their families.

Mr Spring said that in seeking a restoration of the ceasefire, the Government had made it clear it did not want to see any other activity on the ground inconsistent with an end to violence. It was the consistent view of all members of the House that punishment beatings, and any activity like them, were not acceptable in a democratic society.

Pressed further by Mr O'Malley, the Tanaiste said he wanted to see an end to violence, and consistent with that would be an end to punishment beatings or the threat of them in any community.