Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As to where we go from here, a number of issues are being dealt with. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, is preparing the agenda for the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. We are trying to get as comprehensive an agenda as possible. At this stage that is the only forum in which we can progress matters with the British Government, and we want to progress a number of issues. Many issues in the various processes have been stalled or delayed and we want to try to make progress on them.

The care and maintenance issues of the North-South bodies are still outstanding. Useful work is taking place in that regard even though it is progressing more slowly than we would like. We still intend driving these matters forward. Co-operation is ongoing on a number of aspects regarding police oversight. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will be in Northern Ireland next week for meetings on that matter. Other Ministers are involved in their individual areas of co-operation. We can usefully do a number of things.

We will continue to make as much progress as we can within the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The Government remains committed to the Agreement and to the principle of parallel consent that underpins it. That principle creates a problem in that if trust and confidence are not built up, one cannot do many of the things one would wish to do. This has been the difficulty since the assembly collapsed. Since then we have endeavoured to pursue three major initiatives, namely, the joint declaration, the sequence of the autumn of 2003 and the document of 8 December, which address the outstanding issues, namely, decommissioning, ending paramilitary activity, completion of the policing project and ensuring stable institutions. We will continue to try to make whatever progress we can, to engage with all the parties and see what work we can do even if, as Deputy Rabbitte suggested, we are unlikely to get back to the comprehensive agreement in the next few months. Everyone accepts that position but it does not mean we will do nothing — we can continue to engage.

The most recent negotiations failed because agreement could not be reached on the transparency elements of the process of arms decommissioning because the IRA was unwilling to commit itself to clearly and definitively ending criminal activity. Nevertheless, the good side was that both the DUP and Sinn Féin signed up to the many political aspects of the comprehensive agreement, including the policing provisions, which I do not want to lose because we worked on them from the talks at Weston Park. We now have agreement on the issue, which is a significant and encouraging element. We got close to resolving many of the issues.

I understand that among the assets investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau in recent years have been those accumulated through criminal conduct by persons involved in paramilitary organisations. The CAB has our absolute support in dealing with those issues and for its activities in that regard. I do not know what are its achievements but it is involved in activity and is co-operating with the Assets Recovery Agency in Northern Ireland. Progress is being made in terms of these issues.

See this speech in context