A political party which effectively supported terrorism was at present the largest political party in most of our third-level institutions, Mr Brendan Ryan (Lab) told the House.
Parliamentarians, particularly those in leadership positions, should consider how they could encourage these young people to think through the morality of the political positions they were perhaps adopting for reasons that seemed to have more to do with romance and protest than with an understanding of what they were supporting. Mr Ryan joined with members on all sides of the House in condemning the recent murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan and expressing sympathy to his widow and family.
Dr Maurice Manning, Fine Gael leader in the House, pressed for an early debate on Northern Ireland. "We are slipping very dangerously close to a situation where the entire edifice created by the Good Friday agreement may well collapse." It was highly likely that there would be a return to direct rule by the end of the year unless something dramatic happened.
Mr John Dardis (PD), deputy Government leader in the House, said it was curious that in circumstances where an international coalition against terrorism was being assembled, there seemed to be some tolerance of terrorism within the island. Dr Maurice Hayes (Ind) was concerned that Northern Ireland was teetering on the edge. There was a need for a dramatic act. The one act which would fundamentally change the nature of things was the handing up of arms.
Urging that steps be taken to copperfasten a total ban on "passports for sale" practices, Mr Feargal Quinn (Ind) said he was not happy that the response given by the Government in 1998 was sufficient. At that time he had been given an assurance from the Coalition that the practice would no longer continue. "But we just learned the other day that a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden obtained an Irish passport back in the late 1980s." The Government had undertaken not to issue any more passports for sale and to set up a committee to determine how best to put this into legislation. "We have heard nothing more in three years," he said. Demanding that the Government make clear its intention, Mr Quinn said steps must be taken to ensure that there was no way that Irish citizenship could be obtained by by-passing the normal regulations.