- Mr President, like the other speakers here today I very much welcome the opportunity that this House now has to discuss an issue which is, and should properly be, very close to all of our hearts. It is in terms of terrorism perhaps the worst case of continuing ethnic conflict within the borders of our own Union. Unfortunately, it is still not yet the only unresolved case, but it is certainly the worst. I think, Mr President, that we have entered a new era and that a generation of people, from Northern Ireland in particular, who have been oppressed by death, by violence and by terrorism can now contemplate the new millennium with genuine hope.

The complete cessation of violence by the IRA and the total and complete commitment of Sinn Féin to the political process have been the key to unlocking this new hope. It is obvious that many have maintained and still maintain a reserve; and I can understand the reserve: the search, whether it is for a word or for the substance, for the meaning of the IRA ceasefire and for whether or not it is permanent. I understand the reserve after the brunt of suffering which people have borne, and I understand the kind of reserve that a government that feels responsible to such people will bring to the table. But I hope that reserve will not get in the way of progress, and I hope that people who feel this way will understand that the IRA's campaign of terror or its cessation of terror speaks most loudly to us through their action and not just through their words. I welcome the fact that for the several weeks since their words have been the words of peace, their action too has predominantly been the action of peace; and

I think and hope that the gap which may be there in terms of words will evaporate very quickly in terms of political substance. I believe that every passing day adds to the substance that should be there, rather than simply insisting on a particular phraseology.

In this regard, Mr President, I want to pay a very particular tribute to John Hume. Like other colleagues I salute his commitment, courage and fortitude. The Chinese have a saying that a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. It was John Hume who took the first step in the process of causing the IRA to disengage from violence, and to take that step required great moral courage: not because there was anyone who questioned the commitment or conviction of John Hume in regard to constitutional politics and the democratic way, but because many said he loaned succour and gave credence to those who believed in terror, by supping with them or by speaking with them at all. I know that John Hume and his wife Pat and their family went through some very difficult times. I can just imagine what the Hume household must have been like on the evening of the bombing on the Shankhill Road, when bodies were carried out of a loyalist area in Belfast as a result of an IRA atrocity, when the leadership talked peace but

when the gunmen fought war. John Hume's fortitude carried him through that. That is why he deserves a particular salute from his colleagues in this Parliament for the restraint he exercised and for the commitment and fortitude he showed.

But there are others too, Mr President, who should be noted for the statesmanlike role that they have played in this regard. The British Prime Minister, John Major, and the Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds in Dublin, have brought a very commendable and real commitment to place this at the top of their political agenda. For too long Northern Ireland was low on the agenda. Now it has found its rightful place at the highest point of the Anglo-Irish agenda and at the highest level in both governments. That is a commendable change. Equally, one also has to salute the measured response and the mature statesmanship of the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party, having to take risks in this new situation and to become part of the potential search for peace. It requires a very delicate parallelism, and so far I think we have seen a genuine and real commitment from all sides to try to engage in that. But I would still appeal, as others have done, to the INLA on the Republican side and to the loyalist paramilitaries to ceas

e their campaigns of violence as well. There never was, there never has been, and there never will be, in the context of whatever problems there are in Northern Ireland, justification for campaigns of terror, and I appeal to those people to lay down their arms and to open the way to complete and free political dialogue.

Equally I note the disturbing evidence in recent weeks in parts of Catholic West Belfast, of the IRA still handing out punishment beatings. The commitment to democracy cannot be equivocal or a half-commitment. When you are in, you are in for the lot. Democracy is not an à la carte process, and these appalling abuses of human rights must cease, as did the formal campaign of terror itself. I agree that much remains to be done on the question of arms, on the question of amnesty, and so on. Mr President, these issues require confidence building and they require time. I believe that in time the groundwork which has been laid will bear fruit, and I salute all those who have engaged in that process and brought us to this point.

(Applause)