Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I think so. There are no outstanding reasons it cannot be reconstituted and moved on.

I have no particular information on the arms issue. There are still subversive groups, though small in number and dedicated in their unhelpful mission. They are still about and there have been some reports of activities, all from the usual sources. They still take up quite a large amount of effort and resources. There is always the worry that they can strike and create problems. It is always when progress is being made that we worry most about these elements. Up to 8 May there will be heightened surveillance of these groups.

On the North-South issues, I have had the Deputy's letter checked by legal people and the Department, and we are almost ready to reply. I will provide a lengthy reply, dealing with many issues. The end result is that everybody who examined the letter, which contained good points, is satisfied that under the terms of the existing legislation, particularly the British-Irish Agreement Act 1999, the bodies are fully and properly accountable to the Oireachtas. They are satisfied the necessary legislation is in place to provide for appropriate parliamentary accountability of State bodies. I will give the Deputy a full reply containing references and analyses. The Deputy will accept that many of the points are of a legal nature, but I have had them cross-checked.

With regard to the parliamentary forum, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is anxious for us to move on that. When I attended the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body recently I spoke to members on the issues. There is an opportunity now, in the parliamentary and the British-Irish forum, to get back to where we were. It will probably not happen this side of the summer but we should try to get the parliamentary groups and forums together in the autumn, with a new Dáil and Assembly, with the imminent changes that will take place across the water. The ideal time would be late September or early October, with all of them being done together. Everybody is agreed they should go on so we should move on it.

Discussions with the Government Whip are still active and I would like to finalise those issues. We will probably not get much work done on them in the life of this Dáil but we could at least have arrangements made to start in a new Dáil term. We could agree the arrangements or enhance them if possible.

Regarding resources, the money will be additional to make the package meaningful, build on the initiatives of the national development plan and help the dynamics of last week. As Deputy Rabbitte will appreciate, there was a lot of work in the background surrounding the events in the past few days, a big part of which concerned the economic issue. For us to make a meaningful package and to work with the Treasury and Chancellor Gordon Brown, it was our considered view that we should take a wholehearted approach, which has been acknowledged by Dr. Paisley, Gerry Adams, the British Government and the other parties in the North.

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