Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the first question, I have always made clear, in the context of restored confidence and trust in the peace process, that I would make proposals for Oireachtas participation by all Northern MPs and I made it clear that would include all sides. They complement other proposals, including that for a North-South parliamentary forum. For too long, we have not paid enough attention to Northern Ireland issues, and the need to understand each other and work together is highly commendable. My proposals are in line with the recommendations of an all-party committee report endorsed by the House at the time and again in May 2003, and they are also consistent with the Good Friday Agreement.

I have written to party leaders and I am aware several parties have reservations and queries about the proposals. When an opportunity arises to consider their responses in detail, which I appreciate, we should agree a way to discuss these issues with a view to developing an all-party consensus. In my recent contacts with Northern Ireland parties, I set out the rationale for this proposal and I assured them that I do not intend it to become a divisive issue. I do not want to move to a situation where Oireachtas Members and committees can talk to parliamentarians from everywhere in the world with the exception of Northern Ireland. That would be regrettable and, therefore, we must find an adequate way to address this, which I believe we can.

The second question is about the best way to resolve all the issues relating to restorative justice, community policing, the difficulties of people getting involved in this scheme who might have links to former paramilitaries and undermining what is normally a good idea. Restorative justice and community policing is basically a good system, but it is difficult to operate a system like this without proper policing. The solution to getting on top of this is to get the PSNI accepted and agreed by all parties and functioning as it wants to do. The PSNI is making good progress. A total of 114 of the 175 recommendations in the Patten report have been implemented. The report by Mr. Al Hutchinson, the Policing Oversight Commissioner, in September shows how well the force is doing. However, the best way forward is to properly resolve the policing issue. Whatever grows out of that, as in any other area, can be useful. The use of restorative justice and community policing without normality in or shared policing is open to danger.

We have discussed this issue with the British Government, which is supportive of the concept of such policing on the basis that it helps people and communities to work together. The British Government, like us, has heard about how this system can be wrongly used, but the best way to address it is to deal with the policing issue because until that is resolved, it will be difficult to have a system with which people will be happy.

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