Mr. David Donoghue:

I thank Ms Gildernew. I will take just a couple of those points. That was a very interesting quotation from Deputy Tully about how the Good Friday Agreement had not answered the constitutional question but asked it. I see it a little differently. I see the Good Friday Agreement as having asked the question but then having agreed that we would answer it only in due course. In other words, we almost parked it. It was the first time all sides were agreeing as to what the constitutional issues were and, in effect, saying that, at a point to be defined later, we could come back to them. In other words, the two documents I mentioned laid out the parameters as to how we would address constitutional questions. It meant that all participants were able to go into the negotiations in a more relaxed frame of mind because each objective had been described as legitimate. It meant it was easier to put things to one side and to focus on institutional questions. I would like to think the questions were asked. Answers were not required immediately but, as I said, it was agreed they would be answered in due course.

That brings us to the border poll Ms Gildernew talked about. Again, curiously enough, not very much time was spent on that issue in the negotiations, as I recall. It was always understood that the Irish Government would de facto be automatically consulted before the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland would reach the determination. It is not in the document partly to ease unionist concerns, but everybody knows that, in practice, it would be effectively a joint decision. The Secretary of State will not pop this question in a vacuum. I think that is widely understood.

As for Ms Gildernew's point about validating Irish unity, what I meant is that the British Government in the joint documents in the 1990s and the Good Friday Agreement itself accepted that it was legitimate for people to want Irish unity achieved by peaceful means. The British Government accepted that and even said it would be encouragers, enablers and facilitators for agreement among the Irish people. All of that was good. It does not mean the British Government considers itself bound. I am not speaking for the British Government but, clearly, the timing of a border poll is for the British Government to decide. There was nothing in the agreement saying that it had to happen within a certain period of time. In a sense, I am going along with much of what Ms Gildernew says. To me, however, the question was deferred to, one, a point at which the Secretary of State technically pops the question, as it were, and, two, to a political context in which we all feel it would make sense to have a border poll. That is my take on it, that we were pushing the question a little down the road, perhaps - not very far down the road but a few years down anyway - and that, in the meantime, initiatives such as what we see in the shared island work programme would be taken forward. I think the shared island initiative is exactly what is required at the moment.

As for the draft list Ms Gildernew mentioned, she is absolutely right that there were various drafts of a whole series of policy areas. Some of them would have involved implementation bodies with executive powers. Some would have been more for harmonisation of effort. Some would have been just for consultation. There were different categories, but they certainly ran to several dozen policy areas under one or other category. I would not say we were left with the bones of them, but they were whittled down and they had to be agreed. A key point the Irish Government pushed was that these would be capable of dynamic growth. Obviously, Sinn Féin was looking for that as well. Personally, I am a little disappointed that it has not been possible to add to the initial list of bodies over the past 25 years, but I do recognise the political constraints that were against it.

I am not happy with them but I recognise there were pressures coming from the other direction. We certainly worked hard to make it clear this would be an initial set of bodies and that it could be capable of additions over the years. From those original lists, there are many areas that are still relevant for North-South co-operation and where we want to be doing more.