Debate contribution: Paramilitary Groups: Transition from Violence and Crime

Debate contribution by Mr Eóin Tennyson on 10 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Eóin Tennyson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

10 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Paramilitary Groups: Transition from Violence and Crime

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4841728

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. The motion provides an opportunity for the Assembly to take a stand against the disgraceful suggestion from the UK and Irish Governments that an interlocutor be appointed to scope out and lay the groundwork for a formal process of engagement with active paramilitary organisations. Paramilitarism is a stain on our society for which there should be zero tolerance, acceptance or acquiescence. It is bewildering that, 27 years on from the Good Friday Agreement and more than 30 years since the ceasefires, anyone in the Governments, or anyone in the Chamber, would countenance sitting down and negotiating with those organisations as though they are either legitimate stakeholders or credible community representatives. Whatever their flag of convenience, paramilitaries are driven fundamentally by greed, making money by controlling, exploiting and terrorising some of the most vulnerable in our community through drug-dealing, extortion and coercive control. Far from breaking down the coercive grip that paramilitaries enjoy over communities, the Governments' plans would simply enhance it. A formal process of engagement would simply confer on them a platform, a status and a veneer of legitimacy that not only do those organisations not deserve but which would be unthinkable anywhere else in these islands. I have no doubt that it would be wielded as part of their wider arsenal as they seek to further gatekeep and control communities in the future. Despite asking on numerous occasions, I have yet to hear articulated a single legitimate barrier to those organisations leaving the stage at any point over the past 30 years. They could, of course, voluntarily cease recruitment, withdraw threats of reprisal against those who seek to leave of their own accord and end their illicit activities. The only conceivable barrier to disbandment is the commitment of those involved to continue lining their own pockets and profiting at the expense and misery of some of the most marginalised in society. How will any Government conceivably play a role in removing that barrier, unless, of course, the Secretary of State is willing to countenance some sort of payday, which, he says, he is not? That is inevitably where that sorry gravy train leads. Nor have I heard any answer to the question of what such organisations will transition into. Are we seriously suggesting that, with a helping hand from the Governments, those involved in the malign activities of dissident republican and loyalist paramilitaries will simply become a benign old boys' network? Those unanswered questions lay bare the folly of the Governments' approach. Our foremost consideration, however, must be the impact that any process of formal engagement would have on the victims of paramilitary crime. I say this to the Secretary of State, the Tánaiste and Members in the Chamber: put yourself in the shoes of the small business owner who is asked to pay protection money; of the young mother who is exploited through drug dealing and loan sharking; of the child who is abused; or, indeed, of my constituents, who had a policing and community safety partnership meeting disrupted by sinister elements. What message does it send to them that those responsible will be invited in for a fireside chat rather than being held accountable? That would not be tolerated for constituents in Dublin or London, and it should not be tolerated for our constituents here in Northern Ireland. Rather than moving us closer to a future free from paramilitarism, the Governments' proposals will serve to undermine the progress made to date through the Executive's programme to tackle paramilitarism, for which my colleague Naomi Long serves as the lead Minister. That should concern us all. The programme has focused on delegitimising those organisations whilst building resilience in communities, providing robust criminal justice interventions, working to ensure that future generations are not exploited and traumatised in the same way as those who have gone before and shining a light on the often hidden harms that paramilitaries visit on communities. Of course, that proposal had its genesis in reports by the Independent Reporting Commission, as Members have referenced. The IRC, however, has highlighted the real impact that the Executive's strategy is having and has recognised its tangible effect in communities in which paramilitaries operate. The commission has also cited the downward trend in the number of paramilitary-style attacks, for example, and the reduction in the terror threat level from severe to substantial, acknowledging that progress has been made whilst, rightly, warning against complacency. That is evidence that the existing twin-track approach is working, albeit more slowly than any of us in the Chamber would like it to. I do not, however, accept the argument that the twin-track approach of robust criminal justice interventions alongside efforts to tackle socio-economic vulnerability has been exhausted. Although I fundamentally disagree with the recommendation pertaining to group transition, there is much in the IRC's report that I can support and is to be welcomed. In the criminal justice sphere, for example, the IRC has called on the two Governments to ensure that sufficient resources are available to fund the work of tackling paramilitarism. I echo that call. The commission also recognises the importance of neighbourhood policing to support work, in tandem with that of the paramilitary crime task force, while recommending a number of interventions that are being addressed through the speeding up justice initiative and the creation of new criminal offences for organised crime as part of the Justice Bill. There is also work to do on community resilience, including the long-overdue anti-poverty strategy; work to tackle educational underachievement; work to support those struggling with addiction; and the pressing need to tackle paramilitary flags, symbols and emblems in our community. That is our job, which we in the Chamber are too often not doing. I do not accept that those avenues have been exhausted when there is still so much work to do. I ask Members in the Chamber to reflect on that. Crucially, continuous and stable government will be required to avoid a vacuum that paramilitaries will seek to fill and to lead the sustained change that is required to tackle the socio-economic disadvantage that they so gleefully exploit. The task is enormous, but, unlike others, I am not willing to surrender to a counsel of despair. Clear and unequivocal political leadership is required from all of us in the Chamber and from the two Governments. I fear that that leadership has been sadly lacking in the Chamber today. It is absent in the two amendments. I am particularly aghast at Sinn Féin's amendment, which directly contradicts the position that the First Minister stated at Question Time last week. As for Mr Beattie's contribution, I heard him categorise paramilitaries and members of paramilitary organisations in three broad terms. From where I sat, it sounded as if he was implying that there were good, bad and indifferent paramilitaries

which is an outrageous implication to make in the debate.

Let me be clear: the Alliance Party will not be found wanting in working to deliver the twin-track approach of robust criminal justice measures and efforts to tackle socio-economic deprivation in our society. By doing so, we will build a stronger, safer, more equal and more vibrant community in which paramilitarism is finally consigned to the history books and in which people can live at peace with themselves and their neighbours, free from intimidation and harm. The time for pandering to those organisations is long past. The UK and Irish Governments must now abandon their plans to sit down for tea and biscuits with them and instead work with us in the Assembly to put them behind bars, where they belong. I commend the motion to the House.

1,277 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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