IT WAS "make up your mind time" for members of the House to show clearly how they felt about Sinn Fein, Mr Shane Ross (Ind) declared. Adding his voice to calls for a debate on the deteriorating Northern Ireland situation, Mr Ross said that he did not agree with suggestions from some other members that it was time for Sinn Fein to make up its mind on where it stood. Sinn Fein had made it clear a long time ago that it was not interested in democracy, he added.
Mr David Norris (Ind) said that many people wondered how committed the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was to the peace process. Mr Adams accepted the dictum of the Armalite in one hand and the ballot box in the other. Sinn Fein and the IRA seemed to be treating both Northern communities with contempt and were using the nationalist people there as cannon fodder.
Mr Pat Magner (Lab) said that the Provisional IRA must cease making points with the blood and bodies of ordinary people. The current boycott campaign seeped blood out of the ordinary commercial life of the North. No matter what provocation was offered on either side, boycotting had to end.
Mr Pascal Mooney (FF) said that the message which should go out from the House was of the appreciation of a great many people in the Republic, especially in the Border counties, of the efforts being made by the minority loyalist political lenders to hold the ceasefire.
The Leader of the House, Mr Maurice Manning, undertook to see what could be done to arrange for an early debate on the events in the North.