Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

That is a good point. As the Deputy knows, I have met business leaders and with civic society groups. I have urged them to engage actively and to involve themselves in encouraging the political process, and they have done so. To be fair, a number of the political parties have been working hard to make linkages and engaging with others by assisting them and trying to build partnerships. All that is very positive. What happened recently in sport, in the successful matches held here and in Derry during the Setanta Cup, at which there were no difficulties, was greatly encouraging. Many people are involved and the political process has also played a part, which I acknowledge.

The answer would be a simple one if we simply needed to implement a great new idea. The great new idea is very simple, namely, that the new preparation for Government committee gets on with its work and prepares for Government. We have given it a clear chance so that, in the coming weeks, it can deal with all the issues with which it needs to deal and come to a resolution of these issues, especially those arising between the DUP and Sinn Féin. To be fair to Sinn Féin, it is waiting and willing to deal with these issues. It is only when those two parties and the other parties join together that they can make progress. It is vital they do so.

As I have said, if we must implement a plan B, we will do so. However, that is far from what I would like to happen. The right way is for the preparation for Government committee to do its work in the coming weeks, make progress — it can keep at it over the summer, if necessary — meet the November deadline, get the Executive back up and running and be part of these major decisions. Anything else makes no sense. Important issues affecting health, education and local government in Northern Ireland remain to be dealt with, which will require the input of locally elected political leaders. We need them all to realise that.

I urge the DUP, in particular, to take on its responsibility and to work and engage with Sinn Féin in making these processes work. That is what I want and what every reasonable person would want to happen in the weeks ahead.

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