SAOIRSE32

BN.ie

**Here is another travesty of justice.

26/07/2006 - 18:41:12

No legal action is to be taken against US pharmaceutical companies accused of contaminating more than 300 haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C.

Tánaiste Mary Harney today announced that the Government will act on expert legal advice and not proceed with the case.

The Minister for Health said that although the Government acknowledges the terrible tragedy which befell patients, litigation would serve no useful purpose.

The Irish Haemophilia Society has expressed its grave disappointment at the decision, claiming legal action would finally answer questions as to who was responsible for this appalling case.

In total 106 Irish people with haemophilia were infected with HIV following treatment from international pharmaceutical companies – 67 of these have died.

A further 221 patients were infected with Hepatitis C – 91 of which have since died. Some of the dead had been infected with both HIV and Hepatitis C.

Mrs Harney said: “The Government acknowledges the terrible tragedy which befell Irish residents whilst availing of clotting factor products but is convinced that no useful purpose would be served by the proposed litigation.

“The Government believes that it would be of more benefit now to the haemophilic community to concentrate resources on improving services to persons with haemophilia, including those infected with Hepatitis C and HIV rather than litigation or another inquiry into the matter, with no prospect of either action having a satisfactory outcome.”

Legal experts from both the United States and Ireland have advised the Government that the state would not be successful in winning a case in either jurisdiction.

Despite the decision, individual sufferers can still pursue legal action directly against the companies concerned. Some are believed to be taking action at the moment.

More than €250m of compensation has been already paid out to sufferers. The Government’s legal bill has totalled €45m, which includes €250,000 on the current legal advice.

The Irish Haemophilia Society maintains it was given numerous commitments over the years that an enquiry would be pursued into the US Pharmaceutical Companies which supplied the treatments and action taken.

It also claimed the companies concerned not only accepted blood and plasma donations from high risk donors but actively encouraged such donations from groups including prisoners.

“Legal action taken against these companies by the Irish Government would help to finally answer the questions as to who was responsible for this appalling loss of life,” said chief executive Brian O’Mahony.

Ms Harney said the three US companies are involved in the scandal – Armour Cutter Miles, Travenol-Baxter, Immuno International – have all changed their names several times through the years.

She said other countries had had their claims dismissed from the US courts, but added if any funds had been seized through the legal process it would have compensated the Government’s loss and not sufferers.

“All legal views were unanimous,” she said. “If the Government went against that legal advice people would question why we did that. We were strongly advised not to proceed with legal action.”

The Tánaiste added that another enquiry would not establish any new facts as it is not known which particular treatments infected which groups of people.

Mr O’Mahony continued: “The cost to the Irish State for providing treatment, medical care and compensation for persons with haemophilia affected by HIV and Hepatitis C has reached some hundreds of millions of pounds.

“If legal action was taken in the States against these companies, and was successfully, the Irish taxpayer could recoup all of the costs spent to date.

“This would go a long way towards building, for example a new Children’s hospital..

The Government also came under fire for refusing to take legal action on a “no win, no fee” basis, where the financial risk of an unsuccessful action would have been taken by a US legal firm with no potential cost to the Government.

“There will be a palpable sense of anger and upset amongst the members of Irish Haemophilia Society when they are informed that the Government will breach the commitments given,” continued Mr O’Mahony.

“The Government have refused to hold the promised inquiry, they have refused to take legal action.”

He called on the state to pursue the truth and to recoup these significant sums of money for the Irish taxpayer and demanded the Tánaiste provide the society with a copy of their legal advice from both US and Irish lawyers.

Some 17 legal firms in the US were approached by the Government before one could be found without a conflict of interest. Jenner and Block of Chicago were eventual retained.

Advice not to proceed with the case highlighted a number of factors including that by the 1990s Ireland ought to have known bloods were infected, and rules prohibiting double recovery would prohibit the state from seeking compensation on behalf of people who had already received funds in Ireland.

It is also the view of Irish Counsel that the vast bulk of the damages that would make up a claim would be too remote for recovery.

Ms Harney said no country has done more to look after those infected from the tragedy.

These include an establishment of an inquiry, an investigation into the feasibility of conducting litigation, establishing a compensation scheme and improving a range of health services.

“I want to assure the haemophilia community that my department and I will continue to work in close co-operation with the Irish Haemophilia Society to ensure that every possible support is provided to persons who are infected with HIV and Hepatitis from the administration within the state of infected blood products,” she said.

Daily Ireland

After 22 years, Irish-American Pat Nee returns to Ireland to promote his memoirs ‘A Criminal and an Irishman’ in which he recalls the Valhalla arms shipment

JIM DEE
Daily Ireland USA correspondent
26/07/2006

When Pat Nee arrives in Ireland in September, 22 years after orchestrating one of the largest-ever arms shipments to the IRA from Boston, he’s not expecting to be greeted by dignitaries bearing bouquets of red roses.
“I am not going to be very popular in quite a few quarters,” said Nee, during a lengthy Daily Ireland interview at his South Boston home.
“They are not going to like what I did and the role I played.”
Nee was a key figure in amassing a 7.5 ton weapons shipment that left Gloucester, Massachusetts in September 1984 aboard the fishing trawler Valhalla. The Irish navy intercepted the clandestine cargo two weeks later, just after it was transferred to the Marita Ann off the coast of Kerry. IRA informer Sean O’Callaghan later claimed that he’d alerted authorities about the plot, although there are also allegations that the smuggling scheme was first betrayed in Boston.
Pat Nee will be in Ireland to promote his memoir, A Criminal and an Irishman, which will be released in Ireland by Wolfhound Press in September.
The book offers not only a vivid insider’s account of the Valhalla shipment, but also of street life in the famed Irish enclave of south Boston. Nee also gives a local’s account of the forced school integration and busing crisis that ripped apart Boston in the 1970s, including a colourful account of how a group of “Southie” residents beat up the KKK when Klansmen tried to exploit racial tensions.
Nee also writes plenty about the criminal underworld that he helped run in Southie, and of his rivalry and subsequent uneasy partnership with James “Whitey” Bulger, Boston’s most famous FBI informant, who’s now on their Ten Most Wanted list.
Nee told Daily Ireland that, while he isn’t scheduled to travel into the North while promoting the book, he’s still expecting a particularly hostile reaction from unionists.

(more…)

Daily Ireland

Governments finally admit that IRA is not involved in so-called criminality, meaning DUP’s flimsy excuse is gone

26/07/2006

Sinn Féin last night said the Irish and British governments were stating the obvious in their declaration that the IRA had honoured its promises.
Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy said “serious work” aimed at restoring the North’s assembly must begin.
“It didn’t take Peter Hain or anyone else to tell us that the IRA has honoured its commitments. That’s obvious to everyone on the ground.
“The DUP must now stop hiding behind excuses and get down to serious work,” he said.
The governments said publicly yesterday that the IRA was honouring its pledges to cease military operations and ensure that volunteers did not “engage in any other activities whatsoever”.
British secretary of state Peter Hain said there was no excuse for political parties to refuse to engage and restore devolved government in the North by a November 24 deadline.
He said: “There probably is still some localised individual criminality by former and maybe existing Provisional IRA members for their own private gain.
“What there is not is any organised ‘from-the-centre’ criminality any more.
“To that extent, the IRA are delivering on their commitments made last July, not just in respect of shutting down paramilitary activity but also shutting down criminality.”
Mr Hain’s comments were at odds with Democratic Unionist Party demands that “more proof” was needed over IRA decommissioning and the organisation’s commitment to exclusively peaceful activities.
The two governments have warned that political parties in the North must reinstate power sharing or the governments will take the reins of governance in the North.
Following talks with Irish government ministers at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down, Mr Hain stressed it was unrealistic to expect the IRA to deliver a state of absolute perfection in the time available.
He added: “If you find individual members of the IRA to be engaged in criminality for personal gain, that should not be an obstacle to the restoration of the institutions on November 24 when their leadership is stopping it happening.”
Irish justice minister Michael McDowell backed Mr Hain’s assessment.
He said the IRA had brought a halt to both paramilitary activities and alleged crime.
Mr McDowell told how leading members of Sinn Féin had called for gardaí to investigate a recent vodka robbery in the Republic when it was alleged that two members of the IRA were involved.
The minister said: “I believe that’s the first time remarks of that kind have been made in relation to a matter of that kind.”
Asked if he believed the IRA’s armed campaign was now over following its declarations and disarmament last summer, he said: “The Irish government and British government are working on that assumption, based on the evidence we have.”

BBC

Peter Hain travelled to Dublin on a chartered plane

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has been criticised for using public money to attend sporting events in the Irish Republic.

The details were contained in a report outlining the cost of trips made by Cabinet ministers in the past year.

Mr Hain used a chartered plane to go to a rugby international in Dublin and two motor racing events in Sligo.

The bill, including accommodation costs for the minister and his officials, came to almost £11,000.

SDLP assembly member John Dallat said it sent out the wrong message.

“At a time when rates bills are dropping through the door at an enormous rate of inflation, water charges on the way, children not able to get admission to special needs schools, it just seems wrong,” he said.

“I think he needs to revise his public relations.”

The Northern Ireland Office said in a statement that scheduled flights did not offer the “flexible and efficient travel” which the minister needed to enable him to meet his commitments.

It added that travel arrangements were always kept under review.

Daily Ireland

By Ciarán Barnes
26/07/2006

The British government has been criticised for denying Community Restorative Justice (CRJ) schemes funding unless they work with the PSNI.
Publishing new draft proposals yesterday, direct-rule minister David Hanson radically overhauled the conditions that have to be in place before the organisation receives public cash.
He said the PSNI should refer cases to CRJ and insisted on CRJ dropping its use of a third party to report offences to the PSNI.
CRJ Director Jim Auld branded the proposals “unworkable” and an attempt exclude nationalists from the criminal justice process.
“These are disappointing bureaucratic proposals,” he said.
“They are completely unworkable and have been written to exclude people. The criminal justice system wants its relationship with the nationalist population to be one of control and subserviency.
“This is a lost opportunity for the British government to show trust and confidence in the nationalist community by giving us the freedom to do criminal justice work without hindrance.”
Mr Auld also accused the British government of caving in to the demands of the SDLP. The party’s leader Mark Durkan had previously spoken out against funding CRJ schemes, warning such a move would create “state paid vigilantes”.
The sisters of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney have also cautioned against providing CRJ with public cash.
Restorative justice is designed to bring together victims and offenders in an attempt to resolve their differences at a community level without going through the courts. There are 15 schemes currently operating in nationalist areas and five in loyalist districts.
The British government has been criticised for denying Community Restorative Justice (CRJ) schemes funding unless they work with the PSNI.
Publishing new draft proposals yesterday, direct-rule minister David Hanson radically overhauled the conditions that have to be in place before the organisation receives public cash.
He said the PSNI should refer cases to CRJ and insisted on CRJ dropping its use of a third party to report offences to the PSNI.
CRJ Director Jim Auld branded the proposals “unworkable” and an attempt exclude nationalists from the criminal justice process.
“These are disappointing bureaucratic proposals,” he said.
“They are completely unworkable and have been written to exclude people. The criminal justice system wants its relationship with the nationalist population to be one of control and subserviency.
“This is a lost opportunity for the British government to show trust and confidence in the nationalist community by giving us the freedom to do criminal justice work without hindrance.”
Mr Auld also accused the British government of caving in to the demands of the SDLP. The party’s leader Mark Durkan had previously spoken out against funding CRJ schemes, warning such a move would create “state paid vigilantes”.
The sisters of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney have also cautioned against providing CRJ with public cash.
Restorative justice is designed to bring together victims and offenders in an attempt to resolve their differences at a community level without going through the courts. There are 15 schemes currently operating in nationalist areas and five in loyalist districts.
Mr Hanson said such schemes were integral to the Good Friday Agreement, but “any schemes which go ahead must be locked into policing and comply fully with the rule of law”.
“The centrality of the police to the way in which schemes operate is non-negotiable,” he said.
CRJ schemes are controversial because some former paramilitary prisoners are involved. The new British government proposals allow for anyone convicted of a paramilitary offence before the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to be involved.
CRJ already vets all its staff and is fully aware of those with past convictions. Last year the organisation dealt with 1,700 cases. CRJ has 12-weeks to respond to the British government funding conditions.

Daily Ireland

City councillors spend a staggering £80,000 of ratepayer’s money on travelling around the globe on alleged ‘fact-finding tours’

By Ciarán Barnes
26/07/2006

Belfast city councillors spent more than £80,000 (€117,000) of public cash jetting around the world in the past year, according to a council report published yesterday.

SF Cllr Michael Browne behind shops on Andersonstown Road

The report reveals that the globetrotting politicians visited Austria, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the US.
While away, they took part in “fact-finding tours” and conferences.
The total travel bill of £81,955 (€119,900) came entirely out of the public purse, with 38 of Belfast’s 51 councillors embarking on at least one jaunt abroad.
Former Belfast mayor Martin Morgan, who quit politics last year, criticised the cost and frequency of the trips.
His criticism came as the council prepared to spend a further £10,000 (€14,600) on an all expenses paid visit to China.
Mr Morgan said: “People are faced with mounting bills and rates are increasing. Therefore, the public wants accountability over public spending.
“It is legitimate for a local authority to go outside Belfast if it brings benefits, but how are these benefits measured? The public will be questioning whether this £80,000 has been well invested.”
The most frequent and costliest traveller was Sinn Féin Upper Falls councillor Michael Browne. Between July 2005 and March 2006, he went on 13 trips, including visits to Amsterdam, Boston, New York and Valencia. His overall travel bill was £8,859 (€13,000).
Another big spender was Belfast’s new SDLP mayor Pat McCarthy. More than £7,500 (€11,000) of ratepayers’ cash was used to send the Laganbank councillor on 13 trips, including an autumn stay in the Baltic state of Latvia.
DUP councillor Nelson McCausland was third on the travel spend list. The north Belfast man’s council work took him to Denver, Lyon and Stockholm in a three-month period over Christmas and the New Year, costing the public £7,282 (€10,600).
Michael Browne said all of his publicly funded council trips were closely scrutinised. He said he turned down several trips for every one he went on.
“I was chair of the council’s economic development committee and this resulted in me going on more trips than other councillors,” he said.
“All of the trips I went on brought inward investment to Belfast and I welcome close scrutiny of these by the press.”
Pat McCarthy also defended his travel spend.
“I was only overseas once in the last year on a trip to Latvia and that was because I was deputy chairman of the council’s town planning committee.
“A lot of my other trips were to Cork and that was to deal with a project twinning the city to Belfast. All of my trips were justified.”

Daily Ireland

Ciarán Barnes
26/07/2006

A second resident of a Belfast hostel has been arrested following the discovery of a pipe bomb at the rear of the complex.
A PSNI spokesman said the man, who has an address at Dismas House on the Ormeau Road, is currently helping police with their enquiries.
On Monday 23-year-old Jackie Johnston, a Dismas House resident, appeared in Belfast magistrates’ court charged with possessing ammunition and explosives with intent to endanger life.
He was remanded in custody after being arrested on Saturday following the discovery of a pipe bomb in an alley running between the hostel and Knockbreda Park.

Belfast Telegraph

**No comment necessary on this one…

By Lesely-Anne Henry
26 July 2006

This is the picture of Eleventh Night bonfire celebrations which has one Co Down community spooked.

The photograph was snapped by 18-year-old student Zoe McWhinney at a bonfire close to the Ballybeen estate in Dundonald.

It was taken at exactly 12.05am on July 12 - just minutes after the fire had been lit.

Mum Ruth McWhinney said many who had seen the picture thought it was a devil.

She told the Belfast Telegraph: “It was taken five minutes after the bonfire was lit. If you see the flashes in the background that is the petrol bombs they are throwing to try and light it.

“We had been up at the family fun day all day and stayed on for the bonfire. Zoe had been taking pictures on her phone all day but never looked at them until the next morning. She couldn’t believe it. It is very eerie.”

Dr Andrew Snedden, an expert on the history of witchcraft at Queen’s University Belfast said there were no records to confirm if the Longstone site had been used to practise witchcraft or black magic.

However he noted that there had been a widespread belief in witchcraft in Co Antrim during the 17th and 18th centuries among the lower classes.

BN.ie

26/07/2006 - 11:19:23

The chairperson of the political party that speaks for the UVF has accused DUP leader Ian Paisley of hypocrisy over his objection to her membership of the Policing Board.

Dr Paisley vehemently objected when the PUP’s Dawn Purvis when she was appointed to the Policing Board earlier this year due to her links to loyalist paramilitarism.

However, Ms Purvis says the DUP leader accepted an armed UVF guard during the Troubles without complaining.

She says UVF men routinely guarded Dr Paisley’s home in east Belfast and provided security when he attended rallies.

Irish Independent

ARCHAEOLOGISTS heralded as a miracle yesterday the accidental discovery of an ancient book of psalms - discovered when an alert construction worker spotted something as he drove the shovel of his bulldozer into a bog.

The 20-page Psalter or Book of Psalms has been dated to 800AD to 1000AD and, according to Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan, is the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

“This is really a miracle find,” said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book - pictured above - in storage and facing years of analysis before it is put on display.

He said an engineer was digging up bogland in the south midlands last week when he spotted the book. He would not say where the find was made because archaeologists are still exploring the site.

Irish Independent

AN Israeli bomb destroyed a UN observer post on the border in southern Lebanon late last night, killing four peacekeepers.

UN chief Kofi Annan said Israel appeared to have struck the site deliberately.

The UN troops manning the base included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.

The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel.

As reports of the attack emerged, Mr Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli defence forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon,” he said.

He said the post had been there for a long time and was marked clearly, and was hit despite assurances from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would not be attacked. Israel said it regretted the deaths and would launch an investigation. “We do not target UN personnel and, since the beginning of this conflict, we have made a consistent effort to ensure the safety of all members of the UN peacekeeping force.

“This tragic event will be thoroughly investigated,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

Alistair Lyon
26 July 2006

Donegal Democrat

Tuesday 25th July 2006

An assistant garda commissioner has described as an “absolute lie” a claim that he decided to let a bomb travel to Northern Ireland just days before the Omagh bombing.

Asst. Com. Dermot Jennings, who was then head of the Garda security and Intelligence section, was giving evidence on day 12 of the trial of Detective Garda John White at Letterkenny Circuit Court. Det. Garda White has denied a charge of unlawful possession of a shotgun on May 22, 1998. The suspended detective is accused of planting the shotgun at a Travellers encampment in Burnfoot.

Click photo to view and go to CAIN site on Omagh

Under cross examination Asst. Com. Jennings denied an allegation by Det. Sgt. White that he had decided not to act on information from a source which indicated that a bomb was to be taken to Northern Ireland.

As head of security and security Asst. Com. Jennings had been dealing with Det. Sgt White who had been receiving information that had led to the stopping of bombs and arrest on three different occasions in 1998.

He admitted meeting with Det. Sgt. White in a pub in Dublin in early August 1998. “You informed Det. Sgt. John White that you had decided to let this one through to protect the informant,” Mr Damien Crawford, BL said.

“That is an absolute lie,” he said. “The truth is that I did not receive any information from Det. Sgt. White that in any way would give the indication that a bomb was going to explode in Northern Ireland at any location. The truth of the matter is that what Det. Sgt. White is alleging is an absolute lie.”

He said he received a hand-written report from Det. Sgt. White on August 18, three days after the bombing of Omagh, that “gave no indication that a bomb or device was going to travel”.

Asst. Com. Jennings stressed that the informant who was giving information to Det. Sgt White was not a member of an illegal organisation. “It’s not fair to him to say that he had any knowledge of bombings, he was just a car thief.”

Asst. Com Jennings said he was disturbed to hear that he had kept a confidential document about the informer in his home and that he had named the source to Det. Garda Kilcoyne.

He also denied that he had passed on information to Det. Sgt. White about a group of Travellers in Donegal.

Asst. Com. Jennings told the court the previous day that the garda had received no intelligence that would have stopped the Omagh bombing in August 1998.

When asked by Mr. Paul Coffey, counsel for the defence, did he receive information that might have stopped the Omagh bombing but which was not passed onto authorities in Northern Ireland, he said “absolutely not”.

“If that information had come into my office or the section I was in it would have been passed on to the RUC as they were at the time. No such information existed or was it passed to me,” he said.

“No such information ever came from the accused that would have indicated to the Garda Siochana or any one else that a bomb was going to be placed in Omagh.”

Asst. Com. Jennings said he received a report three days after the bombing from Det. Sgt. White, written in his own handwriting. “There was nothing in the report to indicate that a bomb would be placed in Omagh on August 15,” he said.

RTÉ

25 July 2006 19:22

The Northern Secretary, Peter Hain, said today that the British government will not be building any nuclear plants in Northern Ireland.

He gave the commitment at a meeting of the British-Irish intergovernmental conference in Hillsborough.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, and the Minister for Justice & Law Reform, Michael McDowell, represented the Government.
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Speaking afterwards, Mr Ahern said he welcomed today’s announcement.

However, he said the Government would continue with its legal challenge to Sellafield and is opposed to any new nuclear plants being constructed anywhere in the UK.

Government objections to the existing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria are well-known.

BN.ie

25/07/2006 - 18:47:54

British MPs were debating a Lords change to the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill today which sought to remove “permissible donor” provisions from the legislation.

The move by the peers would prevent political donations being made to parties in the North from donors in the Republic.

The British government was defeated by peers over the issue but MPs today overturned the Lords’ proposal without a vote.

Northern minister David Hanson told the House: “The government firmly believes that Northern Ireland parties and regulated donees should be able to continue to accept donations from Irish citizens and other Irish bodies who can currently donate to Irish parties as well as of course accepting donations from those who can donate from the UK.”

This policy was consistent with the Good Friday Agreement, he argued, and reflected the British government’s belief that Irish citizens should be allowed to make these donations to take account of the Republic’s special role in relation to the North’s political culture.

Mr Hanson argued that the original provisions were a significant step forward from the current position where donations could come from “anyone and anywhere” and there was no obligation to disclose them.

But the DUP’s Nigel Dodds accused the minister of attempting to gloss over a measure that was “clearly discriminatory” against unionist parties.

“How can you stand there and justify a special provision which allows Irish citizens and Irish organisations to donate to parties in Northern Ireland when you know full well that the donations will be completely one-sided and will have no benefit to unionist parties or the unionist population whatsoever?” he said.

Mr Hanson retorted that he could not estimate “who or what or when or where” citizens of the Republic would wish to donate.

But he acknowledged: “I expect that there will be significant donations to potentially the SDLP, to Sinn Féin and other parties.”

Alasdair McDonnell (Belfast S), SDLP deputy leader, said peers’ amendments would narrow the list of political donors, restrict funding and “strangle” parties.

“It is not just parties like the SDLP,” he said. “Unionist parties do derive a small but nevertheless a significant amount of money from across the border with the Irish Republic.

“A law that outlaws the raising of funds for Northern Ireland parties on the island of Ireland as a whole is a bad law, an ineffective law and an unworkable law.

“It runs against the grain of relationships within these islands between Britain and the Irish Republic that have improved so much over the last 25 to 30 years.”

Democratic Unionist Sammy Wilson branded it a “self-serving speech” and said that if the original provisions were reinstated it would be impossible for Sinn Féin to launder money from south of the border into their “coffers” in the north.

Dr McDonnell replied: “Sinn Féin will manage to launder money whatever we do in this House.

“Indeed, they are aided and abetted by the shenanigans of the DUP at every turn because the reality is that we have got to bring back devolution to Northern Ireland and there is a competition on at the moment between the DUP and Sinn Féin to see who can be disruptive and who can be the greatest wreckers.”

In a stinging attack, Democratic Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson accused the minister of having a “credulous gape on his face” during Dr McDonnell’s speech.

This indicated he was either “hiding the real intent of his measure” or was completely out of touch with politics in the North.

“The reality is that you are doing this for one party. You are doing it for the Labour Party’s sister party, the SDLP,” Mr Robinson alleged.

“Sinn Féin don’t need it. Sinn Féin can just use the Northern Bank proceeds. They can use all of their gangsterism. They can use all of the other funds that they raise through illicit means.”

Mr Robinson said the measure was intended to discriminate against the Unionist in favour of the SDLP.

He added: “Why was there a prohibition placed on parties elsewhere in the UK? It was because those who are resident and citizens of countries outside the UK should not be allowed to influence the politics of the United Kingdom.

“Yet the Government is precisely doing that in the case of Northern Ireland where it is allowing people of another jurisdiction to have a direct influence on the politics of Northern Ireland.”

A vote to reinstate the measure was won by 260 votes to 16, a government majority of 244.

The Bill later passed through the House of Lords and gained royal assent.