Mr. David Donoghue:

I would make a distinction between the documents that had been agreed a couple of years earlier and the negotiations. For the Downing Street Declaration of December 1993, there had been much consideration of the key drivers of conflict and what caused the conflict, as well as how to address those factors in a statement by the two Governments. The background had comprised contact between John Hume and Gerry Adams, initially, and then there were other contacts involving Dr. Martin Mansergh and others. In that process there would have been a dialogue about the causes of the conflict. That got translated into the negotiation of the Downing Street Declaration during 1993. In the same way, those contents would have continued into 1995 and the framework document.

I could not honestly say that in the week leading up to Good Friday, there was lengthy analysis of the factors behind the conflict. I was not in every meeting involving the Sinn Féin colleagues but it is unlikely. At that point we were all into trying to get a concrete agreement. It was being put together piecemeal, as Mr. Montgomery states. There was a chunk of text here on victims of violence, another chunk on reconciliation and another chunk on prisoners. It was being put together at high speed. I would be surprised if there was any opportunity to have a fuller debate on the causes of conflict. To answer Mr. Brady's question, it had happened in 1993 coming up to the Downing Street Declaration. That was key.