Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 21 Mawrth 1979.
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Republic of Ireland, which is favourably inclined to the Republican cause, had to introduce the same type of special courts without juries to deal with terrorism, which is not visited on England to the same extent as in Northern Ireland? The amount of terrorism in the Irish Republic is small compared with the violent, obscene crimes committed by the terrorists in Northern Ireland. If the Republic of Ireland needs special courts and if, in those special courts, confessions are produced at about the same percentage, this would seem to indicate that the Provisional IRA uses attacks on the police and uses the admission of confessions as a means of furthering the Provisional IRA cause, which must be repugnant to all democratic and decent people in this country.