Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will abide by the Chair's ruling by giving a broad reply to Deputy Ó Caoláin's general questions. A new round of meetings with the parties is under way. It is hoped that progress can be made, although perhaps not by the end of the year. We will try to understand the concerns of the parties and to listen to their views on how we should tread forward in the new year in respect of the Good Friday Agreement. I hope we will be able to start making progress early in the new year on how best to get the institutions up and running. That will have to be our priority after the IMC report is published in January. I am sure the present round of discussions, which is based on listening to the parties, engaging with them on various issues and finding out how they would like to proceed, will prove to be useful. I am having a round of meetings. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. Peter Hain, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, will also be involved in meetings which will take place before the end of the month. The extent to which the various parties will engage with the process in January or early in the spring should be clear to us by the end of the month. I still believe we should hold firm to that agenda and try to move in that regard.

I will comment briefly on the North-South bodies and the issues of an infrastructural nature raised by Deputy Ó Caoláin. It is enough for me to say that they are still on a care and maintenance basis and it is important that we keep them on such a basis until we get the institutions up and running again. I will not answer the specific questions asked by the Deputy, in accordance with the Chair's ruling, other than to mention that I outlined in a speech I made to the Institute of Directors last week how we should move forward in respect of the Ulster Canal and some other issues. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, spoke publicly about similar issues in recent speeches in Belfast and Derry. The Tánaiste will visit Belfast shortly where she will discuss health issues which cover the points raised by the Deputy.

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