Debate contribution: Paramilitary Groups: Transition from Violence and Crime

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Kelly on 10 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Kelly

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

10 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Paramilitary Groups: Transition from Violence and Crime

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4841592

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle.

On behalf of Sinn Féin, I, along with other colleagues, took part in the Fresh Start negotiations in 2015. The tackling paramilitarism, criminality and organised crime programme emerged from those negotiations. Since then, on behalf of Sinn Féin, I have been a member — this was mentioned by Doug — of the political advisory group for the tackling paramilitarism programme and have attended its meetings on a regular basis, as have other Members in the House. Some 27 years from the Good Friday Agreement, there is no tolerance or, indeed, role for armed groups of whatever label — I think that we all agree with that — to continue to exist and remain active in our society. Their continued existence constitutes the remnants of our troubled past and serves no positive or meaningful contribution to our shared future. They must go out of existence, and their former members must abide by the key Mitchell principles of resolving political issues through solely democratic and exclusively peaceful means. Any exit strategy should not involve any form of financial inducement or reward. The twin-track approach to tackling paramilitary and armed groups remains a vital strategy. It incorporates a comprehensive criminal justice response, alongside the targeting of deep-rooted socio-economic conditions in areas of high deprivation that cultivate the conditions for such groups to emerge. Armed groups cannot and do not make any positive contributions to remedy quality-of-life issues in working-class communities. Indeed, the opposite is, of course, the case: their only contribution is measured through the pursuit of control, criminality and coercion. That point was heavily articulated by the previous two Members to speak. Last summer, the PSNI confirmed that some members of those groups were heavily involved in racist attacks on vulnerable families and business premises that were owned by ethnic minorities. It would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to applaud the good work that is being done by a range of community groups, NGOs and statutory bodies in delivering the various programmes that are funded under the tackling paramilitarism banner. They are referenced in the recent Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) report and are making a difference in communities that are exposed to the scourge of paramilitaries and armed groups. I must make another point about the PSNI. The police are taking a robust approach to criminality. It is wrong to think that that has not been happening or that it will not continue to happen, and all that. While, in communities, we get certain reports coming through about the effect of that from time to time — well, fairly regularly, actually, at the Policing Board —

I lost my place there. The IRC has put forward, in its reports for the past three years, a recommendation to introduce the concept of group transition. The initial programme was predicated on individuals making the transition from paramilitarism. It should be said that, actually, quite a lot of that has happened. It now believes that the twin-track approach should be augmented by introducing an external, trusted individual to conduct a scoping exercise with those groups within a tight time frame and devoid of any financial inducements. I should emphasise that it is asking for an individual of standing, who will be trusted to scope out and come up with ideas. That is what the job is. It is not another way to repeat what has happened in the past. The whole point is that we have got this far. This is about saying, "Let us have a fresh look at it". As armed groups are still in existence 27 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, the initiative by the two Governments should proceed and the response should be analysed as I described. There are no guarantees of its success. We know that before we start. However, it is worth pursuing within the tight time frame that has been outlined, because we do not want it to go on for years and years. Those groups must realise that that initiative represents a genuine, but final, attempt to facilitate a process of long-overdue transition for all armed groups. I urge them to avail themselves of it. While I believe that most Members, including me, will agree with many of the points that are made in the Alliance motion, Sinn Féin believes that the time-bound initiative that is proposed by the Irish and British Governments should not be dismissed out of hand but should, instead, be tested. That is all that is being asked for here. There is little to lose and, at least potentially, a lot to gain for those communities and individuals who suffer from those paramilitaries and crime gangs. I urge Members to support the Sinn Féin amendment.

795 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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