Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To conclude, I would have thought greater effort would have been made to try to complete the Haass talks and to reach agreement coming up to St. Patrick's week. I commend the Alliance Party, the SDLP and Sinn Féin on the huge effort they put in to try to reach an agreement when Dr. Haass was here chairing and leading those talks.

I said months ago and it is still my opinion that the two Governments should have been more active participants in those talks. When we look back on the recent history of our country, and in particular go back to the Downing Street Declaration of 15 December 1993, the two sovereign Governments, under the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach of the time, Albert Reynolds, drove that process. Similarly, with the Good Friday Agreement and the St. Andrew's Agreement, it was the two sovereign Governments driving the process that brought it to a successful conclusion.

There is great potential in the Haass talks to deal with those particular issues that continue in many respects to scar individuals and communities throughout the North of Ireland and that have a downside for all of this island. After St. Patrick's week, we go in again to an electoral process North of the Border, with European and local elections, and then we are into the marching season. There is an urgent need to bring to a successful conclusion the Haass talks that offer so much potential for all of this island.

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