Sir John Major:

I thank the Deputy. The personal relationship I had with Albert Reynolds was very special. We have all had the experience from time to time when you meet someone and you think they are nice enough but are never going to be a particular friend and you meet other people and there is an instinctive empathy that exists. I found that with Albert when we were finance Ministers. We were sharing some of the same frustrations about our meetings at the European Union at the time and so when he became Taoiseach and I was Prime Minister, we had the basis of a very friendly relationship. The first conversation we had was when I invited him over to No. 10. We had a private supper for two - no officials, just us - in the white room on the first floor and it was at that discussion, when we were completely relaxed, that we turned to the peace process and the absolute inability of either of us to understand how it could possibly be tolerable to anyone. We were on the same route exactly from the very start. We did not always wish to get to the conclusion in quite the same way, and we were friendly enough to have many arguments without it upsetting the friendliness, but I would never be able to speak warmly enough of Albert. He became a genuine friend and I miss him still. I am grateful to the Deputy for paying tribute to him and to John Bruton for what they actually achieved.

I will say something that will surprise the Deputy because he very generously talked about bravery as did his colleagues a little earlier. There is one thing which is very hard to express properly because it will cause fury in some quarters. Although the Provisionals and the loyalists continued with their violence - but I will focus on the Provisionals - at the top there was also the wish to look for a peace; albeit on their terms, whereas I was dealing with quite difficult backbenchers on the issue in London.

My backbenchers were probably not as difficult as the backbenchers of those leading the Provisionals and we should remember that as well. Although dealing with them was very frustrating and although they were often very negative, often for show, it was also courageous to take the risk. There is no courage in refusing to engage in negotiations; that is easily done. There is a courage in entering into negotiations and a lot of people in politics and beyond - including Fr. Alec Reid, for example, if we go back far enough, and many others - had a finger in pushing the people who could reach an agreement into actually doing so. That is why I said at the end of my presentation that there are many people, many of them unsung and unknown, who had a role. The real heroes of this agreement are the people, North and South, who kept pressure on to make sure that it never fell away as an issue and they deserve that credit.

The Northern Ireland protocol was mentioned and of course, it is not beyond hope to get an agreement on the protocol and we must. The protocol was a very poor negotiation but I do not see any point in developing that. It has to be put right and the sooner it is put right in some form or another, the better. I doubt there is a perfect solution. So often, there is not so it does and will mean a degree of flexibility from both sides of the negotiation. With that degree of flexibility in London and in Brussels, there must be a way to improve the present circumstance, even if it is not perfect. It is very important that getting an agreement it is treated as a matter of priority because it will enable the Executive to meet again and will enable the other political problems, unconnected to the peace process, to be dealt with by elected politicians in the North. It will also go a long way towards improving the relationship between London and Dublin, which should be as close as any relationship because of the geographic proximity of the two nations but which, in the last two or three years, has not been. That is a loss to London and to Dublin as well.