Provisional Ira Fund-Raising

EDM number 109 in 1996-97, proposed by Harry Barnes on 30/10/1996.

That this House congratulates the Observer newspaper for its gound-breaking expose, on 27th October, of the way in which the Provisional IRA has, at the initiative of Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams in the early 1980s, modernised itself into a sophisticated business using highly-paid professionals to launder stolen money to fund violence and to infiltrate legitimate businesses; notes that the Provisional IRA needs several million pounds a year to carry out its abuses of human rights, support their members and prisoners' families and finance political activities; further notes that fraud is increasingly used to fund these activities and that suspected terrorist money-laundering has nearly doubled since the IRA ended its ceasefire with the Canary Wharf bomb in February, during which time over 40 suspicious transactions have been reported to the authorities; and urges the British Government to give urgent consideration to introducing investigating magistrates, similar to those used to seek and destroy the financial base of the Italian Mafia, who would focus the resources of different Government bodies and agencies and proactively seek to track down and convict those who play a strategic role in raising and managing funds and directing terrorist operations.

This motion has been signed by a total of 27 MPs.