Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Having regard to the terms of the Government amendment, which I support, I will not be moving the amendment tabled in my name and those of my Labour Party colleagues. Having regard to the Sinn Féin motion, it seems the party still lives in an alternate reality, with its own timeline and its own rules of cause and effect. In our reality, the provisional movement failed to live up to its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement and failed to deliver decommissioning by May 2000. It was that failure that undermined the working of the Agreement and its institutions. It ensured that the institutions of devolved government never got a real chance to become firmly bedded down, and it led to the suspension of those institutions and the present impasse.

In the Sinn Féin view, the party has been godfather and chief promoter of what it calls the Irish peace process. It believes the party has always been a fan of the Agreement, even though it has yet to sign it. Moreover, according to this motion, it seeks the re-establishment of the institutions of the Agreement at the earliest date, conveniently ignoring that these institutions have suffered almost terminal harm as a result of the procrastination and cynical manoeuvring of the provisional movement itself. At the present time, when those of us in the real world are hoping that the institutions of devolved government in Northern Ireland may be restored, with luck, at some stage next year, Sinn Féin has decided, as Deputy O'Donnell stated, that the time is right to press for Irish unity.

My view is that Sinn Féin's current strategy is not primarily about the return of the institutions in the North. It is not about power sharing or the restoration of the assembly. Sinn Féin's strategy is about its own political gain and winning concessions from the two Governments. It is also about causing division within the Irish Government in order to proclaim itself the only party truly committed to Irish unity.

Sinn Féin sees political capital and seat gains in maintaining a sense of permanent crisis in the peace process to keep itself centre stage, domestically and internationally.

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