Dáil debates

Wednesday, 26 April 2006

11:00 am

Photo of Bertie AhernBertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy raised three different issues. On Oireachtas participation, as I said in my reply, I will be in touch with party leaders with revised proposals. Last year I agreed I would consult with everybody and we listened to what people in the North said as well as the parties in the House. We have worked on a cross-party basis on many of these issues. A joint Oireachtas report was prepared on this matter. It was not my proposal, but a proposal of an all-party committee. While I tried to implement the report, it did not find favour, which is the reality of the situation. We tried to find revised proposals.

What I have in mind is the establishment of a new joint Oireachtas committee to address the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and North-South relations. These are clearly matters of the utmost national importance and would benefit from the attention a dedicated joint committee could afford them. In addition to its membership, in accordance with normal practice it would be open to all Members of the Dáil and Seanad to attend and contribute to the proceedings of the joint committee as is the case with all committees. Existing committee procedures regarding the conduct of business would apply and the normal committee facilities and resources would be made available. As I said in response to Deputy Kenny, Northern Ireland MPs would be invited on a cross-community basis to attend and contribute to the proceedings of the joint committee following the precedent that applies in the case of Northern Ireland MEPs at the Oireachtas Joint Committees on European Affairs and Foreign Affairs. I am sure their expertise and experience would make an important contribution to the work of a new joint committee. Of course we will continue to progress the establishment of the North-South parliamentary forum and the North-South consultative forum, which also form part of the Good Friday Agreement. I will discuss these proposals with the Whips and the party leaders shortly.

I have already answered the question and will restate the position. Based on the progress that has been made in the past nine or ten months I believe there should be dialogue between the DUP and Sinn Féin, which would make a real difference. The better those two parties get on with each other based on the strength of their mandates in the last election, the better it would be to work an inclusive agreement.

In reply to Deputy Ó Caoláin's question, my idea of an inclusive agreement is, obviously, an agreement with which the DUP and Sinn Féin are involved. If they are not part of the process, it will not be in line with the basis of the Good Friday Agreement as it was envisaged. As I have said, the d'Hondt system is the only system that can resolve that particular difficulty. The important thing is for us to capitalise on the positive developments of recent months. As I have said on many occasions, there is no reason the parties cannot make progress long before the final date of 24 November. I would be the happiest person in the world if the DUP, Sinn Féin and all the other parties were to follow the normal arrangement by trying to work and get on together in the first six weeks. I urge all the parties to be as responsible as they can and to work together as best they can.

We do not want to have to deal with a very unsatisfactory position after 24 November. That date is not being used to threaten anyone. The reality is that the position cannot go on as it is at present. Politicians in Northern Ireland understand that as well as I do. The greatest difficulty I had in the United States — all the parties know that because they were there — was to try to make people understand how people who had been elected to an assembly and an organisation for over four years had not met during that time, despite all the progress that had been made. I was really stretched to try to explain that in the US Senate and on Capitol Hill. People throughout the world have political differences, but it is hard to explain to politicians in the United States or the United Kingdom who take an interest why people will not sit down to try to work to an agreement that was voted on by the people.

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