Mr. Gerry Adams:

I appreciate that. I remember all of that well. I agree with the Deputy that instead of having this rhetorical piece in the Constitution, which never mattered to me as a person living in west Belfast, there was now a practical means of bringing about the constitutional aim of unity but also there would be an Irish Government presence in the North and that strands 1, 2 and 3 would be interconnected. Mr. John Hume used the phrase, "there could be no internal settlement", which meant that there could be no Six Counties settlement; it had to be national. I agree that it was an important thing for the Taoiseach to do. He did that because he understood the merit and necessity of dialogue and authorised secret discussions between our team and a team appointed by him. Mr. Martin Mansergh played a very crucial role in that process. Mr. Dermot Ahern was also part of it. There was another man whose name escapes me now. I think he has died since but he was on the Fianna Fáil ard comhairle at the time. He was a very nice man from County Meath. I cannot remember his name. The two teams worked their way through all of this for ages and came up with the notion that on the one day, there would be referenda to give the people their say about the future. There was that practical outworking so, as I have said a few times, that was arguably an essential commitment from the then Taoiseach at that time.