Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is good to have Ms O'Donnell back in the Oireachtas. I welcome her contribution here today and compliment her on her work in the Department of Foreign Affairs with her specific role in those talks at that time. As we all know, the relationship between the Irish and British Governments over the past few years has, unfortunately, not been as good and as firm as it needs to be to ensure that Anglo-Irish relations are put on the best possible footing. It is to be hoped that that relationship will improve.

Ms O'Donnell mentioned the intensive co-operation between Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair at that time. We had John Major before the committee a few weeks ago and he referred to the strong working relationship and trust between him and Albert Reynolds that led to the Downing Street Declaration of December 1993.

The strong working relationship between the Governments elected in the two jurisdictions in 1997 was important as well. Ms O'Donnell mentioned the North-South bodies and that the programme, plans and proposals for those were filleted. If I recall correctly, John Bruton, when making a contribution here, expressed his disappointment there were not more all-Ireland bodies at that particular time. I assume it was in the areas of health and education, where there would have been ready examples of how we could have had co-operation on an all-Ireland basis without impinging on anybody's political viewpoint.

Ms O'Donnell mentioned so much being left undone and cited policing as one such area. I am thankful there has been a sea change in policing in Northern Ireland. I do not hear people complaining about the PSNI. The only thing that is disappointing to all of us is there are not enough nationalist members of the service. That is a recruitment issue and not imposed by anybody. The quota is there and it is about it being achieved. It would obviously be great if there were more people from nationalist communities involved. I forgot the exact chronology of Chris Patten's contribution, which was critical. I assume it was in the years immediately after the Good Friday Agreement. That work was especially important. Even though it was undone in April 1998, I am thankful to say that good work was continued.

In her submission Ms O'Donnell stated:

In terms of implementation the Good Friday Agreement has seen its share of ups and downs ... However, as an instrument of conflict resolution it has been an overall success. ...[and] has brought about many positive transformations. Undoubtedly lives have been saved by ending the conflict. A generation has grown up in a precious peace.

Those are important sentences. We are here week after week being critical as we analyse what has not been implemented and not been achieved, as well as the protocol difficulties and the fact the institutions, the Assembly, the Executive, the North-South and all-Ireland bodies are not working and functioning as they should be. Ms O'Donnell mentioned the huge gaps between the time the Assembly and Executive were in situand when they were not functioning. Coming up to the 25th anniversary, we hope those institutions will be back up and running. There is an onus on all of us, and especially on people like Ms O'Donnell who contributed so much to achieving the agreement as well as those of us in public life today, to outline that we are in a different landscape, politically, on this island, and between Ireland and Britain, than the one we were in up until April 1998. A number of us met a delegation from the Bundestag yesterday evening and we mentioned that fact to them. Regardless of our being critical that we do not have the institutions up and running and what has not been achieved, we must put the message out for people, especially the younger generation, about the importance of the agreement and what has been achieved as well.