Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

Is the Taoiseach confident that the proposals and timeframe set out at St. Andrews will result in participation by the DUP in a new Executive?

Does he accept that the issue of policing is one for all the parties, not only Sinn Féin, and that the DUP and the British Government have to endorse a system of policing which is accountable, under democratic control and leaves behind the sectarianism and repressive legacy of the past?

Does he further agree that the appointment of the Commissioner for Victims in the North by Mr. Peter Hain was an insensitive and disastrous decision? Does he know that the appointee is totally unacceptable to many victims and that the appointment has been challenged in the courts? Is he aware that the High Court in Belfast has referred Mr. Hain's decision to the British Attorney General and that an inquiry has been ordered into the way the matter was addressed? Has he raised this issue with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Blair?

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