At the outset, I should like to place on record the Northern Ireland Unionist Party's disgust at the betrayal by the Chief Constable yesterday in his comments about the gallant members of the Police Service who attempted to carry out instructions with regard to gathering intelligence.

The Chief Constable's behaviour and comments were in stark contrast to the behaviour of Mr Adams and leading members of Sinn Féin who stood behind their men and went to court to defend their actions; actions about which, no doubt, we will hear more. The Chief Constable is further undermining a Police Service that has already been demoralised because of attempts to appease and bring into the democratic process, and the Police Service, those who are still wed to the Armalite and the ballot box. Mr Orde should resign, as he has been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is this debate about Hugh Orde or is it about the motion?

I have been pretty generous in the range that I have permitted in the debate, and I do not think that I should discriminate against Mr Wilson in that regard.

We have heard plenty of bile directed against the Police Service by that representative of Sinn Féin. I congratulate the police for their behaviour and activity. Despite the comments of the Sinn Féin Member, the Catholic community has nothing to fear from the forces of law and order; the people who are murdering and carrying out punishment beatings against their co-religionists are in the Sinn Féin/IRA movement. No amount of mirrors and smoke will disguise that, even from those in the United States of America.

Mr Trimble is meeting the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State today about the events of 4 October. He has gone to seek assurances that sanctions and action will be taken against Sinn Féin/IRA. We know the answer that Mr Trimble will get, because the Secretary of State, with full knowledge of the activities of Sinn Féin and its intelligence gathering information service, made a statement in Blackpool. He directly addressed Sinn Féin/IRA saying:

That was an indication that despite the targeting, murdering and beatings carried out by its sister party, the IRA, the Secretary of State was prepared to turn a blind eye or to clean the slate for Sinn Féin - that, starting from now, it would have to behave itself.

That was the approach adopted by the British Prime Minister and this Administration. Even when he and the Secretary of State, through the intelligence services, must have been aware of gunrunning and the events in Columbia and that senior police officers were attributing murder on the streets to Sinn Féin/IRA, the Prime Minister was talking about the rugged integrity of Sinn Féin/IRA.

He was prepared to turn a blind eye to, or even to acquiesce in, the worst behaviour of that terrorist organisation. I do not expect that such a slight misdemeanour, as far as he is concerned, will result in his bringing them to book.

I welcome the announcement that you made, Mr Speaker, about the post-dated resignation of Mr Peter Robinson and Mr Nigel Dodds. Dr Paisley said that this is not the time for half measures. It would be logical for the DUP and the UUP to withdraw their Members from the Executive Committees. After all, it would be an anomaly if Mr Robinson and Mr Dodds were to resign their ministerial posts yet remain subservient to the Sinn Féin Ministers of Education or Health or sit on Committees subservient to Sinn Féin Chairpersons.

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On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Will you confirm that there are no Executive Committees? There is an Executive, which our Ministers have never been in, but there are no Executive Committees.

I am not aware of any Executive Committees. I had the sense that the Member might have been referring to Assembly Committees.

I will make it clear that I mean Committees that make a contribution towards the work of the Ministers and the Departments.

I will move on quickly to the position - [Interruption].

Order.

We will see what the word is on the street.

In what may be the last debate in the Assembly, I want to make it clear that our principled opposition to the Belfast Agreement has been based on the fact that we are opposed to the wholesale release of terrorists onto the streets, putting terrorists into the Government and the latest spectacle of terrorists, and those related to them, being placed on the Policing Board and the district policing partnerships around the Province.

It will be a blessing for the Province and its people if the Assembly is brought speedily to an end, so that we can set about the real task of putting in place a proper, accountable Government that is free from the scourge of terrorism. The British Government have sent a clear message, and no doubt the Prime Minister will send no further word of encouragement. It seems that in other parts of the UK there are normal means of putting democratic institutions in place, but there cannot be Government in Northern Ireland unless those who front and represent the armed forces of Republicanism are included.

The view of the majority of decent people, on all sides of the community - Catholic, Protestant, Unionist and Nationalist - is that they are not prepared to accept a Government that has in it those who are out to destroy the state and the stability of law and order on our streets.

I ask that the Assembly endorse the position that we reject Sinn Féin/IRA in the Government of Northern Ireland.

Like many of my Colleagues, I was concerned and surprised about the events of last week. One had to make up one's own mind about what was going on. I thought at first that it was some sort of political act to protect David Trimble from the men in grey suits, but it was not. Although there may have been some political considerations in the actions of the Chief Constable, one must accept that he acted on information.

Let us suppose that the Chief Constable had evidence that there had been a theft and that someone was in possession of confidential Government documents, that there were allegations and evidence to suggest that there were transcripts of telephone calls and minutes of sensitive meetings and that there was intelligence gathering. If there was evidence of moles and telephone tapping, the Chief Constable had a right to carry out an investigation. Of course, we have even heard allegations about MI5 briefing files on IRA and Loyalist terrorists. If the Chief Constable had circumstantial evidence, he was entitled to take the action that he did. Sinn Féin should know that being involved in the political process does not mean that it is not amenable to the law. The actions of some Members opposite seem to suggest that they feel that they are above the law because they are involved in a shoddy, political process.

One does not know how to put it, but we heard something of a rant about human rights and all the rest. What greater human right can anyone have than that to life? What about La Mon, Teebane, Darkley, Bloody Friday, Claudy and Omagh? One could go on; innocent people have lost their lives because of a murderous campaign launched by those associated with the Members opposite. No one should criticise the actions of the Police Service of Northern Ireland last week. The police had an obligation, a moral responsibility, to take the action that they did.

Last week's incident and the comments since it highlight the fact that Republicans generally have little or no commitment to the democratic process or to democratic principles. At the back of their minds is still the idea of the Armalite and the ballot box.

We hear talk of the problems at the community interfaces. Today we heard once again - and Mrs Rodgers touched on it - a very much one-sided criticism of what has been happening there. It is as if all the violence had come from Loyalist sources. Of course, those of us who have seen what has happened at many such interfaces at first hand know that the sinister hand of the Republican physical force tradition is very much evident. One need only look at events in the Short Strand. Five Protestants were shot, evidence that the physical force tradition is alive and well in the thinking of Provisional Sinn Féin. We cannot escape the fact that it operates from a dual platform, with the military on one hand and the political on the other.

I speak unashamedly as one who was opposed to the Belfast Agreement. However, if I had some sympathy or support for it, I would be saying to myself "Hold on. There seems to be a flaw in this agreement, for if someone misbehaves in the Executive, the whole thing collapses." Even those who are pro-agreement must recognise that that is a weakness in its structure. If one party defaults, everyone is tarred with the same brush, and the whole edifice collapses as a result. I do not say that as one who was in favour of the Belfast Agreement. I am merely making an observation.

In recent days, we have seen Sinn Féin protests at police stations and courts. Its members believe that when they are involved in politics, they should be above the law. They must learn the lesson that they are amenable to the law like anyone else. They have no right to intimidate the courts, this House or anyone else. If they do wrong, they should feel the full rigour of the law and accept their sentences, and that includes being thrown out of the Executive. This is not the first time that they have defaulted; many of these things have been going on for some time. They have been in default many times by their activities, particularly at community interfaces and particularly in the past year or so.

Finally, I have no difficulty in supporting the motion. The House should have faced up to Sinn Féin many months or years ago, because the threat of people who have been involved in violence is clear. It is a threat that they were born and brought up with. They have been indoctrinated. They will not change. A leopard does not change its spots. Neither does Sinn Féin.

I share Mr Ford's concerns about the events of Friday, 4 October 2002. Although the Assembly has met to discuss what happened on that date, Members are clearly more concerned about the events that occurred beforehand.

The Women's Coalition has had serious reservations about the games that people have played with the agreement. Mr Speaker, you said that the debate is so serious that no Member should behave badly in the Chamber, or, indeed, outside it. It is possible that there was wrongdoing by both sides on Friday 4 October 2002, and in the events that took place before that date. That is a good question. The questions that people could ask go far beyond who sanctioned the raid and what was found.

Why do Republicans not move forward on the issue of policing, given that it is such a phenomenally important part of the agreement? Indeed, in the light of the events of last Friday, we might well ask how the support of the whole community can be won for policing. Why have leaks been coming in all directions except to us, the political parties, who generally find so much secrecy and lack of transparency? In fact, to find out whether we will be negotiating important issues of the agreement in the morning, it is better to pick up the newspapers than do what we all should have been doing from the start - talking to each other.

Why are punishment beatings still going on? Why is the antisocial behaviour that triggers them not being tackled in a legal and constructive way? Perhaps the most serious question of all is this: if parties are committed to peace and to the agreement, why have they not been in dialogue day and night, both in and out of crises? Why have they not brought their problems to the table rather than pretend that they are someone else's responsibility? Every day we hear that it is all John Reid's fault. Unionists say that he has not done enough. Republicans say that he has not done enough. John Reid says that if he hears that from both Unionists and Republicans he must be doing something right. He is entirely wrong. That is not my analysis of how to sort out a problem.

The Women's Coalition has continually called for the establishment of an implementation committee during the past three years. The easy part of the agreement was signing it; the hard part is implementing it. Therefore, like any other business project, those who are involved should ask each other what they must do to ensure that it works. That is the part that has failed. Some failed to take the implementation of the process seriously. They failed to come to the table. Now people are saying that it never would have worked. I believe that it never had a chance. If everyone knows what caused the breakdown of trust and the breakdown of the institutions, if they can say that they know what the problem is - [Interruption].

If Members wish to have conversations, will they please have them outside? I am hearing conversations from all sides of the House. It is difficult at the Chair to hear the Member.

If everyone knows what has caused the problem, surely everyone has a responsibility to put forward what is believed to be the solution. The Assembly has the capacity to sort it out. So far, it has chosen not to. Hence, it has arrived at this state of affairs. The Women's Coalition believes that it is time that the Assembly had some political maturity, accepted responsibility for its own failures and stopped blaming people outside the Chamber for those failures. If it cannot sort the problem out, can it stop the press asking whether a rabbit is to be pulled out of a large hat?

When people are held accountable by society, it is through the legal process, at the ballot box, or by the institutions of Government. The legal process will work; the ballot box will work - and the sooner the better. Some people are saying that they will hold people accountable by pulling down the institutions - shame on those who decide that that has to be the way forward.

Let us be honest: the Assembly and the agreement have not failed. It is the political parties in the Assembly who have failed to trust each other and be worthy of trust. They have been secretive and aloof and have only looked after their own interests. If a peace agreement is about anything, it is about looking after the interests of others as well as your own.

If the Assembly is plunged into limbo, either by resignations or suspension, we must be clear about what that means. The institutions will be disrupted, leaving a very dangerous political void. The only people who will clap their hands at that prospect are those who never wanted it to work and used very violent means to ensure that it did not.

This is not the end: this is the beginning of a new and difficult phase of the peace process. There is no question that, if we are political representatives and if politics is about the art of the possible, we must find a way out of this serious crisis.

Returning to direct rule or to the violent stalemate that existed before 1994 are not options, and no one here should consider them as such. If the future looks bleak, how much more bleak will it look if the ceasefires break down, if there is nothing to encourage paramilitaries to hold back, and if there is no framework for moving forward on policing and on how Northern Ireland is governed?

All of the Ministers, even those who will resign on Friday, did a good job. I am not in the Executive, and I have criticised them. However, they were proud of the job that they did. Why, to their shame, are they walking away from the Executive? The losers will not be the IRA or the security services or, indeed, the parties in the Chamber. We heard on the radio today who the losers are - we hear it every day. The losers are the ordinary citizens.

People from Arthritis Care came to lobby the Assembly today. Their physical pain was very obvious to us. They said "How can you possibly let this go? Whom will we talk to in your absence?" If the British and Irish Governments take the decision to govern together, then we, as British and Irish citizens, will have handed over governance to them. If that happens, shame on us all.

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A House divided cannot stand, nor can institutions that claim to be democratic coexist with the representatives of political terrorism. Democracy and terror cannot coexist, not even if the joint between them is greased with power, money and patronage.

It is claimed that Sinn Féin/IRA has an electoral mandate that must be recognised. I say "electoral mandate" rather than democratic mandate because no party - nay, not even a Government - can have a democratic mandate to do wrong, be violent, terrorise, murder and intimidate or ignore and violate the conventions of the democratic process.

Hitler's Nationalist Socialist Party had an electoral majority, but it had no democratic mandate to commit genocide. Henry Kissinger stated that the cost of appeasing Hitler was millions of graves across Europe. Mr Milosevic had an electoral mandate from a Serb majority, but he currently stands trial for crimes that no mandate could excuse. Pinochet had an electoral mandate, and Mugabe still has such a mandate. Sinn Féin/IRA has no mandate for terror, violence and murder.

The British Government, under the leadership of the one whom Sinn Féin describes as the "naïve idiot", stand indicted of moral and political cowardice. Like that other naïve idiot, his predecessor in office, Neville Chamberlain, who thought that he could do business with Herr Hitler, the present Prime Minister believed that Sinn Féin/IRA would behave in accordance with the principles of democratic government.

As Chamberlain sacrificed the Czechs to keep German bombs out of London and failed, so the current naïve idiot was prepared to sacrifice the democratic people of Northern Ireland - not just Unionists, but Nationalists as well - to keep IRA bombs off the mainland. To achieve that end, democratic principle and the rule of law have been sacrificed. Not only do these devolved institutions make a mockery of the true democratic process by withholding free elections, but they are a constitutional Taliban that provide not for change but for stagnation.

If Tony Blair is a naïve idiot, then David Trimble, Empey, Nesbitt et al, coupled with the media, the Archbishop, the church and government committee of the Presbyterian Church and some captains of industry, represent Lenin's "useful fools". Murder, mutilation, intimidation and destruction have all been dismissed as risks to peace. The most patent violations of ceasefires by all the paramilitaries have been held, in the round, not to be so.

As the last in a catalogue of terrorist activity, the events of last Friday have demonstrated that Sinn Féin/ IRA has no place in even this form of alleged democracy. The institutions, like the mule, have neither pride of ancestry nor any hope of posterity. The current violations are so invasive of the democratic process as to stick in the craw of even a British Government who have demonstrated their ability to swallow almost anything and a total inability to speak the truth or behave with a scintilla of moral integrity.

Let me make it clear that my views on terrorist representation are unqualified. They include the IRA, the UDA, the UVF, the UFF, the Real IRA and any other form of the IRA. If those views appear to concentrate on Sinn Féin/IRA, it is only because Sinn Féin is in office. I assure every Assembly Member that if the boot were on the other foot, and the PUP had sufficient electoral support to gain places in Government, I would make exactly the same speech. Terrorists of any hue or colour, be it orange, green or polka-dotted, have no place in a democratic Assembly. Perhaps the biggest indictment of the total falsity of Gerry and Martin's brave new world in which Unionists will be cherished equally is the vicious, vitriolic, prejudiced rant of Mary Nelis.

It is not open for Mr Dermot Nesbitt to speak with all the rage of a toothless sheep and threaten Sinn Féin with some sort of desperate gum bite. The truth is that his party stood with the representatives of Loyalism behind them - they were the power behind the throne. They are on record: their votes were used to put the First Minister in position. Nor is the SDLP free from shame. On 10 December 1998, the SDLP was invited to join in a motion to exclude Sinn Féin from Government, not permanently, but until such time as it showed a willingness to abide by the undertakings, not the sanctions, which it had given in spirit in the Belfast Agreement.

Just as honey came forth from the lion's mouth, it may be that something worthwhile will come out of the collapse of the Assembly and that we will be able to review the mistakes that have been made and set forth on a new path towards reconciliation, but a path too on which repentance and admittance to the democratic process depend on showing what Sinn Féin/IRA has not shown - a true spirit of conciliation.

I welcome this debate. Our party was absolutely right to stress the need to have such matters debated on the Floor of the Assembly, given that so many people in the community are rightly concerned at the meaning of last weekend's events and the implications for the political process in Northern Ireland. The events, particularly those of last Friday, were the latest manifestation of the reality of IRA/Sinn Féin's participation in the so-called "peace process". [Interruption].

Order.

We have had a litany of events and allegations. There has been one illustration after another that IRA/Sinn Féin is not committed in any way to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. The Florida gunrunning trial proved that the IRA was up to its neck in the importation of illegal weaponry.

Then there were the events in Colombia and the association of Sinn Féin/IRA with narco-terrorists. There was the break-in at Castlereagh, as well as the ongoing violence, referred to by other Members, on the streets of Belfast and elsewhere, in which the police have made it clear - and others know this for a fact - that Sinn Féin/IRA figures are heavily involved. Targets and hit lists of politicians and others on the mainland and here, drawn up by IRA/Sinn Féin, have been discovered. All of those demonstrate that IRA/Sinn Féin is not committed to exclusively democratic and peaceful means.

Sinn Féin is in denial. Gerry Adams even claims that he was never in the IRA. I listened to Martin McGuinness on the radio the other day, claiming that he did not even know if the IRA apparatus was still in existence. Sinn Féin will deny, lie, camouflage and prevaricate to cover up the truth that it is not committed to exclusively peaceful and democratic means - that it is, in effect, a criminal conspiracy.

That party is different from every other political party here and on this island because it is in Government at the same time as it retains an illegal terrorist organisation at its beck and call. That fact is recognised by the political parties in the Irish Republic, who said that they would not accept Sinn Féin under any circumstances in their Government, while demanding that we follow David Trimble's lead and put Sinn Féin into the Government of Northern Ireland.

We listened to the ranting and raving of Mary Nelis. We see Sinn Féin, from the unreconstructed to those who are up on charges, setting people up for murder and claiming that there is an overlap between membership of the police force and Loyalist terrorist organisations. That comment, from a party in Government, is scandalous and outrageous. [Interruption].

The reaction of its Members shows that that hit home.

Order.

Remember that that party is in Government in part of the United Kingdom - a western democracy. In the Assembly, through its official spokespersons, it accuses the police force of having in its membership members of an illegal terrorist organisation. I hurl those scandalous and outrageous comments back in its teeth. Not a single shred of evidence has been produced. What about the clear evidence that exists among its rank and file of convicted IRA terrorists? Leading Members of the Assembly in the Sinn Féin ranks are leading members of the IRA army council.

There is no mention of the hypocrisy of that position from the likes of Mary Nelis. She knows all about what is meant by people calling at the dead of night, rapping on doors and brutality. Mr Gerry Kelly, Mr Molloy, Mr Martin McGuinness and all the rest of them know what that means, since they know full well what it meant for many innocent people and families in this community. All their words about commitment to peace have been shown up for a sham and a hypocrisy. Mrs Nelis and others get themselves so worked up into a rant and a rage because they realise that the veneer has been stripped away and that people see them for what they really are.

Mr Nesbitt referred to Jörg Haider, the need for the same principles to apply here as apply in the rest of the European Union, and the way in which Sinn Féin/IRA and paramilitarism cannot coexist with democratic Government. His tough talking does not disguise that those were the points that the DUP made when the UUP put Sinn Féin in the Government. To say now - [Interruption].

Will the Member give way?

No, I shall not. We have had more than enough information from Mr Nesbitt. Unfortunately, the actions of Mr Nesbitt, Mr Leslie and their Colleagues, including Mr Trimble, have done more damage to Unionism, the Province and democracy than anything else in our history. There they sit - the retired, the redundant, the deselected and the rejected. More people on those Benches are either retiring or have been deselected than are running again, which shows their commitment.

Having been warned that IRA/Sinn Féin was not committed to exclusively democratic and peaceful means, UUP members cannot deny that they put their names, signatures and support behind an agreement and strategy that placed IRA/Sinn Féin in the Government of Northern Ireland. To lecture Sinn Féin/IRA now, when previously they supported, aided and abetted them, will neither wash in the House nor with the people of Northern Ireland.

I join with other Members -

Order.

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I join with other Members who welcomed the debate. I point out that my party supported its inclusion in the Order Paper because these matters are of enormous importance and must be debated in the House.

Anyone who has read the newspapers recently, watched the media coverage or listened to Mrs Nelis earlier can be in absolutely no doubt as to who is responsible for the predicament that we are in today. Apparently, responsibility lies with the Secretary of State, the Police Service, the Unionists - just about everyone, apart from the Republicans.

I am absolutely clear about one benefit that may come from the situation. If the confidential documents are in such wide circulation, perhaps a few of them could be published. What their publication would make abundantly clear is the absolute, total commitment of the Ulster Unionist Party leadership to making the agreement work. In the light of the information that it had in its possession, Sinn Féin's degree of dissembling on the matter, and about our intentions, is quite extraordinary.

However, inevitably in such circumstances, Unionist support for the agreement has been tested almost to destruction. That is because the Republican movement has failed to fulfil its commitment to switch completely to the use of democratic and peaceful means. There was no doubt that that would be a momentous event, should it occur; and it was a major step to take, which is why we understood that it would take much time, determination and nurturing. We appear to have evidence now that we have not yet reached that point.

However, taking into account the future needs of the people of Northern Ireland, and the need to live in a society that is not dominated by Loyalist gangsters or Republican paramilitaries, we must continue to nurture the hope that we can eventually, if we all hold faith, get the Republican movement to understand that, if it wishes, it has a place in democracy. There is no need for it to continue with its terrorist ways, which, furthermore, are totally abhorred by the population. We must know soon whether the Republican movement is committed to its halfway house of tactical armed struggle or whether it really has a desire to change.

Mrs Nelis, in her bravura performance of implausible denial, and in common with others in recent weeks, said that Sinn Féin has denied that the Republican movement was involved in the Castlereagh break-in; it has denied that Republican activists in Colombia were anything other than innocent tourists; and now it denies that Republicans were involved in anything unusual in Castle Buildings. I am beginning to wonder whether Sinn Féin is still a Republican group if Republicans were not responsible for any of those things.

Sinn Féin gives us a smokescreen. It describes the supposedly nefarious activities of "securocrats", but it would be more helpful for us to scrutinise the actions of the Sinn Féin "deniocrats". When questioned on Radio Ulster this morning, Mr Martin McGuinness could think of nothing more that Republicans could have done to stabilise the peace process. Having watched Mr McGuinness over the years, I had no idea that he had so little imagination.

These people cannot accept responsibility for anything. It is interesting that this time the allegations are that Sinn Féin has been caught with its fingers in the cookie jar. Therefore, we do not have to go through the pantomime of hearing that this somehow is not Sinn Féin's fault, but the IRA's, or is somehow connected to other Republican organisations -

I caution the Member for what he said.

I note your caution, Mr Speaker. I point out that those were allegations, and I was referring to a cookie jar.

It is unfortunate that recent events have obscured other violent events in the Province in the past few weeks - for example, the appalling beating of Mr Raymond Kelly on 6 September in south Armagh, which he seems to believe has something to do with members of the IRA, and the beating and shooting of Mr McBrearty last weekend in the Creggan. That has caused outrage among those who live in the Creggan. If observers' accounts are to be believed, people with characteristics remarkably similar to those of some members of the IRA seem to have been involved. A reader of 'The Irish News' was moved to write to that paper on 4 October, saying:

I should like to acknowledge Mr McBrearty's and Mrs McCloskey's courage in what they have said about recent events. We should salute their courage in doing that, because we all know how dangerous their words could be for them.

I do not excuse the constant squalid behaviour of Loyalist paramilitaries. There is little as obnoxious as an organisation that publicly proclaims that "their only crime was loyalty", while simultaneously indulging in drug dealing, extortion, and squalid, lethal turf wars. Ulster can do without such defenders.

People in this country want permanent peace - something that Republicans are never done telling us.

It is obvious that there is a crisis of political confidence on both sides of the community. That is reflected not merely in Friday's events but in the events of the preceding weekend, particularly the Ulster Unionist Council meeting. That did not inspire confidence in the Nationalist community. Friday's events did not inspire confidence in the Unionist community or, I stress, in the Nationalist community.

Three questions arise from Friday's events - the first must be addressed to the Police Service of Northern Ireland; the second to the Northern Ireland Office, and the Secretary of State in particular; and the third to Sinn Féin.

The Chief Constable of the PSNI issued a statement in which he said:

At least he has expressed regret about how the raid was carried out. Further explanations must be forthcoming to the Policing Board.

Questions must also be asked of the Northern Ireland Office. If the NIO was in possession of such information for so long, why did it not act on it? Leaving aside security information for the moment, what political information was involved? Were there reports about the position of the Irish Government, the DUP or the SDLP, leading up to the policing issue? We demand answers from the NIO, and we are entitled to them. Why did the NIO act when it did? The timing is of great concern, particularly to the Nationalist community.

The most important questions are for Sinn Féin, and it has not given any explanations or answers. Was Sinn Féin involved in any way in the events that led up to Friday's occurrences? The questions that we must ask are without prejudice to any of the individuals involved. Political rather than legal questions arise, and we are entitled to hear the answers from Sinn Féin today. Was Sinn Féin or the Republican movement involved? It must be remembered that it is one movement made up of two parts, and each part knows what is going on in that movement.

That brings me to an important issue - continuing paramilitarism in our society. I listened carefully to Mary Nelis as she ignored the elephant standing in her kitchen - the IRA. All Sinn Féin spokespersons ignore that elephant, yet it is there, and it does not seem to want to go away. Sinn Féin is in denial about it; it will not face up to the fact that paramilitarism corrodes the political process. Although Loyalists represent the gravest security threat to peace in Northern Ireland, the IRA represents the gravest threat to political stability in Northern Ireland. That is the reality, whether the IRA is involved in an active campaign or is quiescent but involved in something else on the fringes. Sinn Féin must come to terms with paramilitarism and the continued existence of the IRA.

As the editorial in 'The Irish News' of Monday 7 October 2002 stated

That is the nub of the problem. If we are to restore credibility in Sinn Féin - and that is a matter for itself - and if we are to restore credibility and confidence in the political process, Sinn Féin must face that problem. It can no longer ignore it. Friday's crisis has brought the matter to a head.

We must all face up to that issue, and Sinn Féin, in particular, must face up to it. If it does not, the process of recreating confidence and of restoring the strength and vitality of the institutions will be lost. We have made enormous progress here, politically and economically, since devolution.

Will the Member give way?

No, I shall not. I have only seven minutes.

Are we going to throw away the enormous progress that we have made? Sinn Féin has made an enormous contribution to that political progress through its membership, its chairmanship, and through its Ministers. Today, I welcomed Martin McGuinness's decision to abolish the 11-plus. Let that social and economic progress continue, but let us restore confidence and credibility to the institutions.

A major step forward would be for Sinn Féin and the Republican movement to come to terms with what 'The Irish News' rightly identified as a central problem - the continued existence of the IRA.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Here are a few facts. First, the death knell for the institutions was not sounded on Friday. It was sounded at the most recent Ulster Unionist Council conference. The raids, arrests and charges are a convenient, but transparent, cover for political leaders who are anti-agreement. They are a bogus excuse to take action that is aimed at wrecking the agreement and the peace process, which has been nurtured over 10 years.

Ian Paisley's DUP has always been against the agreement. Jeffrey Donaldson walked out of the negotiations on Good Friday, four years ago. He has been an implacable opponent of the agreement ever since, and has been promoting and gathering anti-agreement support in the UUP since that day. A few weeks ago, the UUP formally moved to become an anti-agreement party. In September, it issued a wreckers' charter, penned largely by Jeffrey Donaldson, which set out the stages of the timetable that it would adopt to wreck the institutions that the agreement established. David Trimble had already set out that scenario at the UUP's annual general meeting in March. Therefore, although Dermot Nesbitt read out a list of pro-agreement actions, all those are in the past. Now, he is anti-agreement, as is his party.

The wrecking of the institutions, regardless of the convoluted tactical moves and counter-moves involved, is a common objective of the DUP and the UUP. The relevance of the electoral battle between those two parties is not lost on anyone. Ian Paisley now calls the tune. The political battle is being fought entirely on anti-agreement territory. Anti-agreement forces will win out; David Trimble cannot out-Paisley Ian Paisley.

I am saddened by the Alliance Party's taking the same route, also for electoral reasons. That indicates the exclusively Unionist base from which it draws its vote. Nevertheless, it is sad to see the Alliance Party join the clamour of the UUP and the DUP in demanding that the agreement be set aside and that the wishes of the electorate be ignored.

I turn to the invasion of the Assembly and the bogus raid on the Sinn Féin offices. That was a direct political intervention by the PSNI into the political situation. It was political theatre. Two discs were stolen at random from dozens of desks to give pretence to a raid in order to spuriously justify the action, and that has rebounded on police. I have with me what was taken - a disc and a CD-ROM.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it in order, given that the PSNI entered the Building with a warrant and took away items for its investigations, for any Member of the Assembly to charge those police officers with theft? The search was perfectly in order, and it could not be considered to be theft.

What the Member says is self-evidently the case.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it not a fact that the police were not in possession of a warrant when they entered the Building?

It would be ill-advised for anyone to go into precise times, arrangements and matters that are sub judice.

Let me be clear that the discs were taken - stolen or otherwise, depending on which word people wish to use. One of the discs is a canvassing plan for an election strategy, so we shall probably see it in the papers very soon. After taking those, Hugh Orde's words about the manner in which that was done cut no ice. Like the RUC, the PSNI is operating to a Unionist agenda. It proves that there was no reason for the invasion of our offices except to make a political point. The two discs were taken so that the police could publicly later show them and say that that was the reason for the invasion.

Does the Member agree that it is the Ulster Unionist Party that has a case to answer in relation to leaked documents? It is now the employer of Alastair Patterson, the former deputy returning officer for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, who was suspended from his job for leaking documents to the Ulster Unionist Party. He is now working with the Ulster Unionist Party as its electoral officer.

I thank the Member for that point. Like his predecessors, Hugh Orde will defend the PSNI, whether it is right or wrong. That is the inevitable first step of the corruption of the head of a police force that continues to have a political agenda. That is one reason among others why the PSNI remains unacceptable. Some people have correctly spoken out about this. Others have been more concerned about imagery and the further damage that that would do to the PSNI and to those who have wrongly stuck their necks out to support it. Few voices have been raised to declare how unacceptable the invasion of an elected Assembly by a partisan police force is. That in itself was politically partisan. Those who remain willing to allow a police force to commit these unacceptable abuses without criticism may in future find themselves the victims of the same abusers. They are short-sighted indeed.

A great deal of hypocrisy and cant surround the issue of leaks. There is a great deal of bogus outrage, all to serve the wreckers' agenda of the DUP and the UUP. British Government agencies, the RUC, RUC Special Branch, the UDR and members of the British Army regularly handed over montages of photographs by the wheelbarrowful to Unionist paramilitaries. That process and policy of collusion resulted in the deaths of hundreds of members of the Nationalist community.

Douglas Hogg, that central figure in the events leading up to the killing of human rights lawyer, Pat Finucane, was briefed by the most senior levels of the RUC and the RUC Special Branch before uttering his comments that some lawyers were too close to the IRA. That became the prelude to Pat Finucane's killing.

I also remind the Assembly that on 27 January 1999, Ian Paisley claimed, under parliamentary privilege, that a list of 22 people whom he named as IRA members had been supplied to him by the RUC. There was no investigation into that. Personnel in the NIO leaked the Garvaghy Road game plan in 1997 to embarrass Mo Mowlam. There was no investigation into that.

As Mary Nelis has already stated, on 4 May 2000, Chris McGimpsey produced another document from what he described as an "impeccable" NIO source. There was no investigation into that. On 26 July 2001, security sources passed details of a policing report to the BBC. There was no investigation into that. On 8 December 2001, details were leaked of the Ombudsman's inquiry into the Omagh bombing. There was no investigation into that.

Those leaks continued time and again. My time to speak is running out. I note that the SDLP is taking up the Unionist position in asking a series of questions of Sinn Féin. Alban Maginness, a Member for North Belfast, at no time mentioned the attacks by Loyalism on his constituency.

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