Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Trust means that one tells the truth. If one was or is a member of the IRA, one says so. If one's movement killed Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, one says so. If one's movement raided the Northern Bank, one says so. Denying matters that are known as obvious truths, undermines the credibility of those engaged in this type of mendacity.

If Sinn Féin is in the business of creating an elemental trust, not a high moral trust or total reconciliation but a basic building block of interaction with the Unionist community, it must first start by telling the truth. Until it can face up to this, it is going nowhere because it simply will not be believed. It has achieved what it set out to do, namely the polarisation of Northern Irish politics and pressurising the position of the middle ground to make it the weakest it has ever been in decades. Now, the responsibility lies with those who have driven this process forward to make the huge leap to engagement with the other community based on trust and truthfulness. I believe in Irish unity, based on consent and persuasion. I believe in the long run the Unionist people in Northern Ireland will find, in an all-Ireland political and economic accommodation, autonomy and fulfilment. The biggest set-back for the process of persuading them to that end has been 30 years of Provisional IRA violence.

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