Part of the debate – in the House of Lords am 4:12 pm ar 12 Chwefror 2025.
Baroness O'Loan
Crossbench
4:12,
12 Chwefror 2025
My Lords, I alert the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, to the fact that the noble Lord, Lord McCrea, is a DUP Peer.
I speak as a victim of the IRA and condemn unequivocally every atrocity that happened everywhere. As the Minister will agree, the security forces had a well-planned, intelligence-led operation here. The evidence is that 20 minutes after the attack by these IRA men, they returned to the car park where the army was waiting for them. The coroner says that the Army unleashed 570 bullets. No bullets were fired by these IRA men. I do not in any way condone what they did, but two of them were running away as they were shot in the back and they were then shot in the face by the soldiers as they lay injured. Does the Minister agree that it is fundamentally important that, wherever they are in the world, our Armed Forces behave within the rule of law and that, if we are to build a safe and stable future for Northern Ireland, it must be on the basis of the rule of law?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
