NORTHERN IRELAND (Hansard, 8 May 1972)

§ Rev. Ian Paisley
I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, The escape on Friday last, evidently to the sanctuary of the Irish Republic, of a convicted IRA terrorist serving a 10-year sentence from Her Majesty's Prison, Crumlin Road, Belfast, and the resulting breakdown of confidence in the security forces. This matter is specific. One Michael Willis, an IRA terrorist, was charged 12 months ago with a very serious firearms offence. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years. On Friday last, by methods not yet known, he escaped from the Crumlin Road prison, and a statement has been issued from the IRA authorities to say that he is now safely in the sanctuary of the Irish Republic.
This matter is important because it is one of a series of serious gaol-breaks from 924 Her Majesty's prison in Crumlin Road. It is the first gaol-break since this House voted to take over the Government of Northern Ireland. The Government announced that they were anxious to have law and order in their own hands, and now that they have taken law and order into their hands, we discover that there is this serious gaol-break.
This break must be put in the context of the present Northern Ireland situation. The Government have declared that it is their intention to de-escalate internment. The House knows that I have advocated since becoming a Member of this House that the ordinary processes of the law should be used against terrorists, that they should be brought before the courts, that they should be tried and, if guilty, sentenced. Now we have discovered that one of the men who has been brought before the courts and has been tried and duly sentenced has been able to escape. Therefore I say it is a matter of great importance.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. I have given the hon. Member considerable latitude. He really is not entitled to make the kind of speech he would make if the application were granted. He is entitled to raise the topic. I have allowed him to go rather further than that, but he must not enter into the merits.

§ Rev. Paisley
Finally, could I say that it is impossible for this matter to be discussed in this House by question and answer until after the Whitsun Recess? As a Northern Ireland representative, I believe that I and others in the House should have an opportunity in some way of raising matters of urgent public importance. I appreciate the latitude that you have extended to me, Mr. Speaker, and I hope that you will appreciate the position in which I find myself.

§ Mr. Speaker
The hon. Member for Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) was courteous enough to give me notice that he intended to make this application. I do not have to give any ruling upon the importance of the matter, nor, indeed, upon the ways in which these matters can be ventilated in this House. I simply have to decide whether I consider that the business of the House already announced should be disrupted for an 925 emergency debate on this topic. I am afraid that I cannot grant this application.

§ Mr. Powell
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Without in any way raising, let alone questioning, the grounds on which you arrived at the decision which you have just announced, may I put it to you that if it were the case that Private Notice Questions or Standing Order No. 9 Motions which would be acceptable when they related to one part of the country become unacceptable when they related to another part because of a frequency or intensity of emergencies in that other part of the country, this would be a very serious matter? I should like to ask you whether you would consider it right to move the proper bodies to consider problems of this nature with which we are presented by the present circumstance in Northern Ireland and the new responsibilities of this House with regard to it.

§ Captain Orr
Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. We realise the difficulties in which this situation has placed the Chair. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Powell) has pointed out, there are incidents which are an almost daily occurrence in Northern Ireland which if they happened in Great Britain would be the subject of Private Notice Questions, ministerial statements and the like. Prior to the prorogation of Stormont, they 926 would almost certainly have qualified for Private Notice Question status there, too. Now the electorate of Northern Ireland is totally frustrated in that it cannot put such questions.
I would respectfully suggest that you might consider some kind of middle way, perhaps by putting this to the appropriate Select Committee so that it could discuss how the business of the House could be protected, avoiding continuous discussion on Northern Ireland while permitting Private Notice Questions of a kind which raise new issues of considerable substance or particular gravity. This matter places those who represent Northern Ireland in extraordinary difficulties. May I suggest that you might approach the Leader of the House with a view to seeing whether the difficulty could be avoided by weekly statements, progress reports, on the state of the rebellion in Northern Ireland?

§ Mr. Speaker
I make no complaint at all about the manner in which the right hon. Member and the hon. and gallant Member have put their points of order. I think that they are on a very valid point to which I have already referred in the House. The House is in a difficulty. certainly the Chair is, and it has been fairly stated I have been aware of the problem for some time and all I can say is—but perhaps I had better not say any more now—I will certainly bear in mind what has been said.