The Government has decided that certain provisions of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act, 1998, which would otherwise cease to operate from June 30th must be renewed. "The sad reality is that those responsible for the Omagh bomb have, in the last year, continued their campaign of violence and that there is no change of substance to the circumstances which led to the enactment of the 1998 Act," the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, told the Dail.
Sections 2 to 12, 14 and 17 would cease to operate from the end of this month unless a further resolution was passed by each House of the Oireachtas authorising that they should continue to operate for a further 12 months.
The Fine Gael spokesman on justice, equality and law reform, Mr Alan Shatter, said his party supported the continued enforcement of the legislation. "One of the ultimate objectives of any democratic society must be to preserve democracy and ensure that those who express their views through the ballot box have those views respected and supported," he said.
Members of the House were sad that this legislation was still necessary, he added. It was regrettable that there were still subversive groups unwilling to recognise the democratic acceptance of the terms of the Good Friday agreement by the people of the whole island.
Mr Brendan Howlin, the Labour spokesman on justice, recalled why the 1998 Act had been enacted, saying: "The Irish people were collectively outraged to an extent I have never witnessed, and there was a determination not to yield to such savagery, particularly as it came within months of the vote on and signing of the Good Friday agreement."
The legislation then in place was not sufficient to ensure that those responsible would be brought to account. "The belief was that the amending legislation contained in the 1998 Act would have that effect, and it's a cause of dismay that there has not been substantial progress in bringing to account those responsible," he said.