Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

They do but I do not accept that. If we talk to Sinn Féin to use its influence to get the IRA to decommission its guns, there is not much point in talking to the SDLP about it. If the DUP has a particular problem, then we talk to the DUP about it. We could not move on in many of these meetings, we had to deal with issues such as decommissioning and criminality, so there was more time spent talking to some of the other parties. That is where the pressure points existed in those talks.

The lion's share of the Irish Government's own meetings has been with the SDLP. We would meet the SDLP more often than any other party, particularly the Minister for Foreign Affairs and other Ministers. The small loyalist parties often make the point that we do not spend enough time talking to them, but we have been trying to do that. We cannot completely influence them, but we can help them in their difficulties. In future meetings, we will continue to deal with all of the parties and to try to make progress.

The second IMC report will be crucial. If all is not well there will not be too much talking to be done. If all is well, however, I hope that we will be able to get into really meaningful discussions on getting the institutions up and running.

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