Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No pressure there, Chair.

It is wonderful to have this opportunity to put these questions to Sir John about the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement. We did not get Sir John's opening statement until we sat down and it has changed the experience of hearing his first-hand testimony. It was lengthier than we would normally get, and for that I am grateful. I do not think I broke my attention to it at any stage. It is an incredibly powerful first-hand account of Sir John's experiences and we are very lucky to have that today.

The biggest thread through it for me is a personal observation, and that is Sir John's feelings towards the use of violence. That seems to be what drove Sr. John through the good days and the bad days and what, as he himself says, as a Prime Minister, made him prioritise Northern Ireland in the way that he did. I am incredibly grateful.

I would share the view that violence was unnecessary. I would feel it was unnecessary. That loss of life has damaged so many people's lives on our island and Sir John's.

It is clear how high the stakes were. Am I right in saying that Sir John felt keenly how high those stakes were, the responsibility that he had at times where he felt it was make or break, and that he had to pursue peace even when the road to the Good Friday Agreement, to peace and ceasefires was not inevitable? I commend Sir John on his bravery. That is in stark contrast to the points in his account on the lack of bravery by the Provisionals when it came to what happened in the Shankill bomb, Canary Wharf and Manchester. That unnecessary loss of life over the decades is pronounced in this from when they initially contacted Sir John. That contrast, between bravery on one side and covering their backs on the other, I found startling. I am grateful for that account.

The relationship that Sir John describes with the former Taoiseach, the late Albert Reynolds, and then with the former Taoiseach, Mr. John Bruton, has been defined by the stakes being high but we are at a precarious point coming up to the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. How does Sir John suggest that that relationship can be recreated between the Irish and British Governments and between the three strands at this point? What does Sir John recommend or how would he like to see that relationship progress when we know the potential of success when it is priorities?