Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In the last two years — it is almost March again — I have been doing almost nothing other than trying to deal with this. That is not a good idea for me or the Government. We need to get to an end to this. Everyone in this country understands what the Ministers, Deputies Dermot Ahern, Cowen and McDowell, and I have been doing for the last two years. They all understand it now. We should just get on with it. It is not impossible to do it. Deputy Ó Caoláin and I know the relevant group of people. It is not rocket science to get to an end to this. If we can move on, we can move on. If we move backwards, that would be terrible for the entire island. I want to move forward. If Sinn Féin is saying it wants to move forward, we should try to do so.

See this speech in context