T6. Mr McReynolds asked the Minister of Justice to join him in condemning the UVF's so-called show of strength in east Belfast at the weekend. (AQT 396/22-27)

I would love to say that I have pleasure in doing so, but I have no pleasure in doing so. It is incredibly disturbing that, at this juncture in Northern Ireland, we continue to see such shows of strength. The people of Northern Ireland generally and of east Belfast in particular are weary of paramilitary organisations exerting coercive control in their community. They are not interested in changes in leadership and management; they are interested in those organisations being put out of business. The sooner that happens, the better for us all.

I thank the Minister for her response, and I certainly agree with the sentiment of her answer. Minister, do you agree that what took place on Saturday evening demonstrates the coercive control that such organisations exert over our communities and that discussions around group transition are no longer appropriate in 2024?

The obvious thing that most of us can see is that many groups have successfully transitioned with no government support: they have transitioned fully into organised crime gangs. Where they want to make a step change in function, they seem capable of doing it without support from anywhere else. Group transition, in the sense of those organisations becoming post-conflict organisations, is not the answer. Those individuals need to transition to being law-abiding members of our community. They need to integrate into society on the same basis as the rest of us and cease the coercive control, threat and intimidation that they wield. Some people refer to these as shows of strength; in my view, they are shows of fragility. When you have to ship people in from outside to cause intimidation in a constituency, there is nothing strong about it.