Mr David Trimble, the Northern Ireland First Minister, said the Omagh tragedy came as no surprise. "There had been over previous months a series of bombs planned and planted by the `Real IRA' " including the one at Banbridge."
He went on: "This is being done with the intention of destroying the hopes that the people of Northern Ireland have that we are coming out of violence and coming into a new era." Mr Trimble said these hopes must not be frustrated.
He also called for safeguards for early-release terrorists to be scrutinised more carefully. "Are you not disturbed, as I was, that a leading member of the `Real IRA' was a person released by the Irish Government some months ago as a confidence-building measure at the request of Sinn Fein?
"You must be sure that this does not happen again."
Mr Trimble said he welcomed the fact that the Irish Government had said it did not rule out internment. It would be "gravely embarrassing" if the Irish Government wanted to intern but could not because the British government was ruling it out at the moment.
The Prime Minister told him in relation to internment: "We can act without delay when necessary. My judgment is that this is not the right moment now."
Mr Blair said he agreed the integrity of the Belfast Agreement must be sustained and all parts had to be implemented, including the safeguards involved in the early release of terrorist prisoners.
Mr John Hume, the SDLP leader, said the reaction of the people of Omagh to the bombing and of the people of Ireland, north and south, was a "powerful reaction which demonstrated that our common humanity transcended totally the divisions of our people".
Mr Hume said it was now "our duty" to translate that into reality by working to implement that agreement which terrorists had tried to derail and to create a society in which people's differences were fully respected "and by doing so, build an eternal monument to those people who have lost their lives on the streets of Omagh, that they will be the last generation to have so suffered". Mr Robert McCartney (UK Unionist, North Down) warned of a "two-tier" approach, asking whether the new measures would apply only to groups like the "Real IRA" with no support but not to the Provisional IRA, which through Sinn Fein had a considerable amount of public support.
But the Prime Minister told him: "It is not correct to say that we have a division between one group of terrorists who operate according to one rule and another group who operate according to a different rule."
Mr William Thompson, Ulster Unionist, whose West Tyrone constituency includes Omagh, pleaded for this to be the last such bomb outrage in Northern Ireland. He told the House, in exchanges after the Prime Minister's statement on terrorism: "Every decent person in Northern Ireland wants this bomb to be the last. We never want to see a bomb outrage like this again."
But Mr Thompson said the package of measures was not enough.
He welcomed "as far as they go, the changes that are going to be made in the law in order to help to defeat terrorism. Of course, it is too late and too little . . ." Mr Thompson also paid tribute to the press and the media for behaving, apart from "one unfortunate programme", with "extreme decency, they were very understanding and they did a good job".