Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Is the Taoiseach aware that the continued participation of Sinn Féin in the Hain approach at the Assembly is geared solely towards the full restoration of the Good Friday Agreement? Is the Taoiseach aware there are real concerns, both within Sinn Féin and across Nationalist and republican opinion within the North of Ireland and throughout this island, that many Unionist representatives clearly are using the current arrangement in the Assembly to divert attention away from the main task at hand? Is he aware there is also real concern within broad republican opinion that the major initiative taken by the IRA last year is not being matched by even a broadening of minds within significant sections of Unionist representation? Can the Taoiseach assure Members that the 24 November deadline is absolute and that if the DUP does not agree to enter into power sharing before that date, the Irish and British Governments will move on immediately? Will the Taoiseach assure us that the first priority, which I stress and believe the Taoiseach and I share, is the full restoration of the Executive and the all-Ireland Ministerial Council, and that the two Governments will move forward with the implementation of the Agreement to the maximum extent possible in that situation? It is not a position at which we want, nor do we believe the Taoiseach wants, to arrive. There is a responsibility on all involved to try to ensure the DUP, those who are primarily opposed to real momentum and progress at this time, faces up to its collective responsibilities.

Will the steps the Taoiseach considers taking also include co-operation and integration on an all-Ireland basis of a whole raft of new areas of social and economic co-operation? That must also be a part of what the Taoiseach envisages post 24 November if the worse case scenario presents itself.

Is the Taoiseach aware that at a meeting of a Sub-Committee on the Barron Report of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights a former senior Garda officer, who had responsibility for the Border region, advised the Members of this House in attendance and others who were before that committee that the Garda had knowledge of the farm at Glenanne prior to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974, which had been infiltrated by British intelligence and that it was from that farm that the bombings of Dublin and Monaghan were planned and executed? Will the Taoiseach agree this is major information? Will he accept that the evidence of the former senior Garda officer today before a committee of the Oireachtas——

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