Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I agree with Deputy Crawford that the policing issue is very important. It is enormously important that communities support and ultimately participate in policing. That is the best way to address and ultimately to defeat criminality and so, policing is a key issue. I welcome the new announcement of the Policing Board and I wish it well in what is a challenging responsibility. It is important that progress is made in extending active support across all sections and communities for the new policing arrangements throughout Northern Ireland, so no individual community is denied its rightful access to police protection. I hope the draft British legislation on devolution of policing and justice will help move the issue forward on the republican side as well. Deputy Crawford asked about co-operation and of course that has to continue. We have seen much of that by the specialist units in recent times.

On Deputy Cowley's question about North-South aspects, there has been very good co-operation recently, particularly on the health side between officials. Secretary of State Hain has been very active in progressing co-operation on those issues. In the last six months in particular we have seen far more engagement on these issues. I have not got the details of that particular report, but the amount of co-operation, activity and engagement has been stepped up dramatically, in general, as regards health. I understand that today, or perhaps last night, a large number of Secretaries General from various Departments have been engaging with their Northern Ireland counterparts. That level of engagement is growing all the time.

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