I welcome this opportunity to address the House at this time. It has never been more important that our voice should be heard in support of the peace process and the necessity to bring this process to a successful conclusion.
This is also a time of some considerable tension in the peace process thus demanding that we address the issues in front of us in a considered and calm manner.
At the time the Good Friday Agreement was signed, Senator George Mitchell predicted it was going to be more difficult to implement the Agreement than it was to negotiate it.
He was certainly right.
I have spent the last 7 years seeking to have it fully implemented. While there have been times of difficulty and frustration, I do not regret one moment of the effort over that time. I am enormously proud of what has been achieved and pay tribute to all concerned in both Governments and among all parties who have helped to transform the political landscape in Northern Ireland.
Anybody who contends that this Government would put at risk all that has been achieved over the last decade for the sake of partisan politics is gravely mistaken.
Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement have been at the top of our agenda and will remain there for as long as is necessary to finish the job. Sterile point scoring and escalating recrimination will not assist any of us to finish the job.
The key question is, after 7 years of start-stop progress, what are the crucial issues that must be resolved to secure the full promise and potential of the Agreement?
In the Declaration of Support which prefaced the Good Friday Agreement, each participant reaffirmed their total and absolute commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues, and our opposition to any use or threat of force by others for any political purpose, whether in regard to this agreement or otherwise.
We always knew that making this commitment a reality on the ground would take time. In a society emerging out of conflict, there would inevitably be a period of transition from violence to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. Nevertheless, as the Agreement was gradually implemented and inclusive politics began to work, the transition was progressively advanced including through two acts of IRA arms decommissioning.
However, that period of incremental progress where inclusive politics was advanced in step with progress in arms decommissioning came to an end in October 2002 following the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. The devolved institutions collapsed because the trust and confidence necessary to sustain them was no longer there.
The analysis of both Governments at that time was that trust and confidence could only be rebuilt by a comprehensive approach that addressed all of the outstanding aspects of the Agreement. Incrementalism, therefore, gave way to acts of completion which would be required from all sides, including the two Governments.
Since then, there have been three major initiatives aimed at securing a comprehensive outcome, which both definitively resolved the questions of paramilitary capability and activity, and provided a secure basis for the inclusive operation of the political institutions.
The results of these negotiations were the Joint Declaration of May, 2003; the abortive sequence of October 2003 involving the two Governments, Sinn Féin and the UUP; and, most recently, the two Governments proposals of December 2004 for a Comprehensive Agreement.
Each of these engagements provided the necessary enabling context in which,by making it clear that politics was indeed working and that all of the issues were being comprehensively addressed, closure could be brought to IRA paramilitarism. The Joint Declaration was a comprehensive audit of the Agreement and provided a renewed agenda for its implementation.
Similarly, the Comprehensive Agreement of last December addressed the four crux issues that were at the heart of the process decommissioning; ending paramilitary activity;completing the policing project; and ensuring stable institutions.
In each of these three engagements, progress was made; the agenda of implementing the Agreement was advanced; and the gaps between the various parties were narrowed. Regrettably, however, there was never sufficient movement on the crux issues of paramilitarism and arms decommissioning to provide the trust and confidence necessary to sustain inclusive government. The political reality was that the movement available from the IRA was insufficient to secure the agreement of the prospective unionist partner.
The most recent negotiation failed to break the impasse because agreement could not be reached on the transparency elements of the process of arms decommissioning and because the IRA was unwilling to commit itself to clearly and definitively ending criminal activity. Nevertheless, the fact that both the DUP and Sinn Féin signed up to the political aspects of the Comprehensive Agreement, including its policing provisions, was encouraging. The containment of recrimination in the aftermath of failure to reach agreement in early December also held out some hope that progress could still be made after the Christmas period.
In the event, the Northern Bank raid and its attribution to the IRA precluded that possibility. I have made it clear that the professional assessment of the Gardai is that they share the view that the robbery was carried out by the Provisional IRA and that an operation of this scale could not have been undertaken without the knowledge of the leadership of the Provisional movement.
The robbery was a profoundly unwelcome and regrettable act of criminality. It has been an enormous set-back to the peace process.It completely eroded the trust and confidence necessary to sustain any engagement aimed at achieving inclusive government. It brought into very sharp relief the issues that must be addressed and resolved if that trust was to be restored namely, ending IRA paramilitarism, including all forms of criminal activity.
That was the emphatic message that the Government conveyed to the Sinn Féin leadership when we met them on 24 January. The same clear message was imparted by Prime Minister Blair on 28 January and it was the message that both Governments conveyed publicly after we met in Downing Street on 1 February.
I fully accept that the peace process is a collective responsibility that carries obligations for us all particularly for the two Governments.
It is a measure of the Governments deep commitment to the process that we were prepared to consider the early release of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. This would have been in the context of a comprehensive agreement involving all the outstanding issues including an end to all IRA paramilitary activity and the full decommissioning of their weapons. This step was considered with the greatest of reluctance and only because it had become necessary if we were to conclude a comprehensive agreement. It was a risk that the Government were prepared to take in the particular circumstances of closure. However, I have now made it clear, including earlier today in this House, that the question of the early release of the killers of Detective Garda McCabe is no longer on the table.
After two years and more of exhaustive negotiations across the full spectrum of issues, it is now impossible to deny that continuing IRA paramilitary and criminal activity are fundamentally destabilising to the peace process. Quite simply, there cannot be inclusive institutions until they are definitively removed from the equation.
I fully understand and appreciate that this may be an uncomfortable reality for some people to accept. However, if we are to move beyond the present impasse and get the process back on track, we must honestly acknowledge the nature of the problem.
Denials, evasions or projections of blame on to others will not solve the problem. The Government does not seek to humiliate any community or score political points off any party. We fully respect the mandates of all parties. However, electoral representation in itself does not override the need for adherence to fundamental democratic norms and standards, including a credible commitment to exclusively peaceful means. Until there is a clear demonstration of that commitment, no prospective unionist partner will share government with Sinn Féin.
I want to see these core problems addressed and resolved so that we can all move on to enjoy the full promise and potential of the Agreement. We have asked the Sinn Féin leadership to reflecton how these issues of instability can be tackled and resolved and expect to engage with them further in the period ahead.
If that engagement is to lead us out of the present impasse, it needs to be properly grounded on the realities and challenges of the core problems that must be resolved.
I do not intend to comment on the detailed content of the IRA statements issued last week. I cannot be sure what the intent of the IRA was in framing them. Given the track record of that organisation in the past, it is only prudent that we should assess these statements very carefully indeed.
But threats, however implicit or subtle, have no place in a process of conflict resolution. And they will certainly not intimidate the Government from doing its duty nor improperly influence it in its stewardship of the peace process.
I cannot believe that any rational person looking at the benefits which the peace process has brought to all of the people of this island in recent years would contemplate a return to armed conflict. Whatever difficulties there are, cannot and will not be resolved in this way or by otherwise threatening the rights and safety of Irish people, North or South.
Some people have drawn comfort from the fact that the first statement last week indicated that the IRA would not tolerate criminality within its ranks. If that represents some acknowledgement on the part of the IRA that its volunteers should not carry out criminal activity, I welcome that development.
However, any such commitment needs to be much more clearly articulated and validated if it is to have any confidence building impact on the community at large.
And, of course, it needs to be clear that the criminality being desisted from includes the full spectrum of illegal activity, as defined by the legitimate forces of law and order in the State.
As Archbishop Brady eloquently said on Friday No cause, no sense of alienation from the State, no warped moral logic can ever regard activities such as armed robbery, racketeering and maiming as anything other than gravely contrary to the common good and therefore criminal, sinful and a constant threat to justice and peace.
Later this week, the Governments will publish the ad-hoc report on the Northern Bank raid received in recent days from the Independent Monitoring Commission. The integrity of the Commission is beyond question. They have formed their own judgment based on the information that they have available to them. They will call it as they see it. We will be discussing their findings with the British authorities.
I have already expressed my scepticism about the application of sanctions against Sinn Féin. My concern is that their application might distract attention from the essential issue that must be dealt withrather than focus people on the challenge that must be confronted.
Cheann Comhairle:
The fact that the Governments have asked the Sinn Féin leadership to reflect on the challenges of trust building that I mentioned earlier does not absolve the rest of us from our responsibility.
The Good Friday Agreement is far wider than devolved government. It is a charter for change across the full range of issues where progress is required in order that society in Northern Ireland be normalised. It comprises agendas for action and change in crucial areas such as policing, security normalisation, criminal justice, human rights, equality, community relations and language and cultural issues. In all of these areas, considerable progress has been made over recent years but more needs to be done to finish the job of fully implementing the Agreement.
Take the issue of policing. It has been a notable achievement of the Agreement. The participation by the SDLP in the Policing Board, arising from Weston Park, was an historic and courageous decision. The Board has performed in a very effective way tackling difficult issues and ensuring durable and fair outcomes. Huge progress has been made.
In his latest report, the Police Oversight Commissioner, Al Hutchinson, described the changes carried out to policing in the North as unparalleled in the history of democratic policing reform. That is not to say that we are complacent. We are determined to ensure the momentum of policing change so that Northern Ireland has a police service as envisaged by the Patten Report.
The last great obstacle to complete implementation of the Patten reforms lies in the continuing refusal of the broader republican community to engage with the PSNI. I believe that all communities deserve good policing and because of this current situation, many communities are denied this. To those who claim that there still are problems with the police service in Northern Ireland, I would say that there are now clear structures to address any such problems, namely the Policing Board, the Ombudsman and the District Policing Partnerships.
The challenge for those who demand policing acceptable to their community is to engage in these policing structures and help to bring about any further changes that may be necessary to fully realise the Agreements vision of a new beginning.
This Government is determined that the gains and achievements of the Agreement, such as policing, will be protected and developed. We intend to proactively use the intergovernmental machinery of the Agreement to ensure that, irrespective of the political impasse, these positive agendas for change continue to be advanced.
A particular priority for this Government, and one which I clearly signalled to Prime Minister Blair last week, is the imperative of maintaining and advancing the North/South arrangements under the Agreement. These not only provide practical mutual benefits for both parts of the island, they also represent the all-island dimension that is so important for nationalists and, for which, this State changed its Constitution in 1998. This Government has a strategic interest in promoting the optimum operation of the North/South dimension and will pro-actively pursue this agenda with the British Government over the coming months.
Whatever the difficulties, our sights remain focused on the objective of inclusive partnership Government in Northern Ireland. That is what the Agreement provided for and that is what the people of this island endorsed. Moreover, departing from inclusivity will not lead to stable and lasting government in Northern Ireland. Stability would not be secured by exclusion of the largest nationalist party no more than it would be by the largest unionist party.
We must, however, be equally clear-eyed in recognising the major obstacles to achieving that inclusive objective. It is the destabilising and confidence-destroying impact of continuing IRA paramilitary and criminal activity. Resolve that problem and the way will be clear to advance towards the stable and inclusive dispensation we have collectively been working to achieve for the last 7 years.
This Government will strain itself to the limit and beyond to achieve that objective. But all our efforts will be futile unless we are first clearly told that the IRA is prepared to bring closure to the activity and capability that has frustrated our efforts thus far.
If that prospect is clearly available, we can all resume the journey in the knowledge that the political destination is achievable. If not, we risk heading up a further cul-de-sac of dashed hopes, deepening recriminations and increased polarisation.
The Good Friday Agreement and the peace process are an indispensable part of the political landscape of this island. All parties to the Agreement, at times in difficult circumstances, have helped drive the important agenda of change that the Agreement embraces.
I do not seek to deny or diminish the part Sinn Féin have played in bringing the process to this point. They are now an indisputable part of that political landscape. We have made it clear that we are keeping our door open. But we do need to hear from them on the fundamental issues that have been raised and how these can be resolved in a conclusive manner. We will also continue to engage with all the other parties.
We have one goal and that is to remove the final obstacles that will allow us to collectively finish the journey that was begun on Good Friday 1998.
I referred to the case of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. In the light of our discussions with Fine Gael, the Government will be circulating an amendment which reflects the position that I set out earlier in the House. This amendment, which amends the Government amendment, will read as follows :
“welcomes the Taoiseach’s recent statement that the question regarding the early release of the murderers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was no longer on the table”
ENDS