Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

To answer Deputy Joe Higgins's question first, if we follow the process over a number of years, and I say this in a serious way, it was a process of trying to get away from a situation where people on all sides were being killed almost nightly and where there were incidents of maiming, burning and other serious issues, and trying to build a peace process. That was done. We then tried to build co-operation at the interfaces, de-escalate the tensions of the marching season, stop the number of shootings and beatings and all of those issues. Over the years, the effort incrementally was to change all those positions and when one position was completed, we moved on to the next series of offences. It is true that as we were going through the process year by year, we were making progress incrementally. Other issues were overlooked because there was a question over which acts were the most serious or vicious, and their effect on people's lives and homes.

In recent years we argued about trying to make progress in respect of policing and this was something we achieved in December. We made such progress because if there was no policing in communities, people were taking the law into their own hands or using what they believed to be corrective action against youths in their areas. The only way to deal with the problems in such communities was to have a proper police force. That was why we invested so much effort into policing.

The issue of acts of completion is outstanding but, as with moving towards the end of criminality, we are making a great deal of progress in respect of it. These were the final matters on the list and the Deputy is correct that action was forthcoming in respect of some issues. If we had tried to take action on all of them at the same time, we could never have been able to so. It was not that they were ignored to the extent that nobody cared about them, it was merely the case that progress had to be made in other areas.

I hope that Northern Ireland will some day soon reach a position where, as is the case in the normal world of law and order and respect therefor, people will feel free to give evidence and prosecutions will take place. I will not comment on particular cases but, unfortunately, there is intimidation by loyalists and republicans of witnesses in many cases. This may also occur in criminal cases, in which those involved may not be affiliated to either side. That creates difficulties and may lead to evidence not being produced. I could cite many cases in which this type of behaviour takes place.

As regards acts of completion and everything that has been said since 8 December, the process in this regard did not start on that date. Since autumn 2002, we have been discussing acts of completion in terms of what these mean and how they will be achieved. I acknowledge the huge amount of work carried out in March 2003, October 2003 and during all 2004 was about those issues. It is not the case that these matters arose after 8 December.

On Deputy McGinley's point, we were accused in 2003 of devoting all our time to the SDLP and the UUP and not dealing with other issues, except in respect of issues with which they were not involved. I refer here to matters of decommissioning where these parties could not play a role because they did not have anything to decommission. Last year we were accused by others of not being involved as much. That was because the Good Friday Agreement ordained that — this was decided by the people — the two largest parties should bring together the Executive. We have, however, always tried to be inclusive and will continue to be so in respect of the SDLP and every other party.

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