Statement following NI Westminster Elections

I would like to congratulate all those who were elected today in Northern Ireland and to wish them well as they serve the community over the coming years.

The Westminster election saw the end of an era with the retirement of John Hume and Seamus Mallon. Their service to the people of Ireland has been of truly historic proportions.  They showed that politics can work and we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. 

Now that the elections are over it is time to definitively resolve the crisis of trust and confidence, to move beyond the current stalemate and to get on with the vital project of fully implementing the Good Friday Agreement.

Both Governments will continue to work in close partnership to bring all outstanding issues to successful finality.  We are completely convinced that the only possible political way forward is through exclusively peaceful and democratic means, a commitment to inclusive politics on all sides, and the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

In the course of the election campaign and in response to the meeting last January with the Government, Sinn Féin have appealed to the IRA to commit itself to purely peaceful and democratic methods.  I said at the time that this initiative had potential. We await a reply to this appeal. That reply must be clear. And it must be decisive.

If the IRA is decisively removed from the equation we will be expecting unionists to commit to and practice partnership politics in Northern Ireland.

I can particularly appreciate this evening the disappointment of David Trimble and the UUP. I hope, nonetheless, that he and the UUP will continue to play a full and active role at all levels of political life in Northern Ireland.

I have, on a personal level, sent my particular congratulations to Mark Durkan and Dr Alasdair McDonnell on the SDLP’s successes in Foyle and South Belfast.

Iwould also this evening wish to acknowledge the enormous contribution and dedication of Paul Murphy during his time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.  I wish him all the best for the future.

6 May 2005