Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like, first, to thank Dr. Alasdair McDonnell for his good wishes in that sense. We should note the contribution he made as a negotiator on behalf of his party; he was at the table as well. A great deal of work was done by all parties in respect of the contributions to this agreement. I am just one person. Along with the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, I represented the Irish Government at the talks. However, talks are only as good as the people who contribute to them. Significant contributions were made by those on all sides. I take this opportunity, in a personal capacity, to thank Dr. Alasdair McDonnell for his role and also for the contribution he made, as the former leader of his party, when the talks were ongoing.

The word "blanket" was used and Mr. Brady referred to the cover of the blanket during the past 40 years. With respect to the generational element, there is as much of a responsibility on politicians of my generation as there is on those who go before us to ensure that the legacy issues are not forgotten. We need to continue to press the British Government on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the Pat Finucane case and the relatives groups. In the context of to the issue of disclosure and national security, we need to ensure that some mechanism is found to deal with the outstanding historical issues. If society is to heal itself and if we are talking about the restoration of normative politics, in my humble opinion, there will not be a move on that restoration until such time as those issues are dealt with. That is a view that informs the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Justice and Equality in their everyday work. In the context of the team of people from the Department of Foreign Affairs who work with the victims and families and at political level in Northern Ireland - quietly and underneath the radar - in terms of trying to progress this agenda on a constant basis, it is fair to say that successive Irish Governments have sought to lean heavily on the British Government with regard to very specific cases and in respect of the principle that if society is to heal itself, it cannot do so unless the legacy issues are dealt with. I would contend that much progress was made last year on devising a process for dealing with the legacy issues and in regard to the potential for setting up institutional changes that would deal with that. We will continue to work on that matter. When the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, meets the Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, next week, the legacy issues will continue to be discussed and they will continue to be live issues.

I take the point that was made by Deputy Smith on the issue of the timelines and the electoral cycle. The work continues regardless of the electoral cycle. Whether it is possible to begin a process again early in the new year remains to be seen but, as I said at the outset, the Irish Government stands ready to engage. If there is a process that is to be started again in regard to dealing with these issues, we stand ready. There is no doubt but that we stand ready to deal with the legacy issues.