Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In regard to the first question, the British Government's position is not that it will not offer an inquiry. It has offered us an inquiry and amended the legislation on the Finucane case but the family, the Government and others rejected the form of that legislation. We do not accept the kind of inquiry the British Government has offered — it is its right to offer it. The British Government gave way to us on the basis of an inquiry but in our view that inquiry, under that legislation, would not be full and open and would allow for protecting people in a way that would get to the truth. It is not that the British Government did not offer an inquiry. It went further than that and changed the legislation and offered the resources and the staff. That inquiry is not one that we believe is open and satisfactory. The British Government's position is that it will go no further under its jurisdiction than that type of inquiry. There rests the issue. Our ongoing campaign has argued for a full transparent inquiry that will bring the people who were involved in this case to heal in a way the family and all those who campaigned for it want.

On the issue of sectarianism, it was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, who met Archbishop Tutu. Previously I had looked closely at the South African model. The Deputy will remember some years ago when we had the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation we looked very closely at how that would or might work. There was not a great interest in or take-up of that by the parties or other groups in Northern Ireland but that does not change the need for us, as set out in the programme for Government and many of the programmes under the Department of Foreign Affairs, to try to help in every way possible in projects, examinations, pilot surveys, cross-Border initiatives and education promotions to deal with the issue of sectarianism in a way that can ease the tensions and particularly in the areas where sectarianism is rife. I acknowledge the enormous amount of good work being done by universities, education institutes, cultural bodies, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and many other bodies. In the programme for Government there is provision for the continuation of this work and the setting up of a fund to assist in this area.

In regard to the North-South bodies we are ready to have those meetings but are waiting for finalisation of the date, which is held up because of the change in the UK this week but, hopefully, it will be cleared. There is a provision whereby the North-South Ministerial Council will be held fairly close to the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Obviously we hope the British Prime Minister will attend, at least on this occasion. It is not a question that the British Prime Minister always attended or that I always attended, but it is a matter of attending the first meeting.

On corporation tax, last year I worked with the groups in the North to put that case. We had done much to assist and press that issue. I worked with Dr. Quigley and many of the other business leaders to put forward a case. Out of that the British Government initiated a review by Sir David Varney to examine the issue of corporation tax reform in Northern Ireland. They did not pin themselves down as to what they would do. Officials have been assisting Sir David and have been in consultation with colleagues in Belfast. We support the proposal, although, of course, we understand that it creates a range of issues in the UK context. Alex Salmond, when he was in Northern Ireland recently, also highlighted the issues for Scotland and a number of people in Wales have done so as well.

Some in Northern Ireland, including some eminent economists, who obviously would be of the Unionist tradition, would argue very strongly that this is not in the interest of Northern Ireland. They would resist the Deputy's comment that their economy is a basket case. They do not accept that the level of public sector involvement is dangerous. I agree with the Deputy, I think it is. There are a number of fundamental problems and difficulties but they fairly trenchantly resist this analysis by us. I obviously respect their position, but those who have argued for more private sector involvement, more capital into Northern Ireland and more inward investment are on the right side of what seems to be the logical economic argument for the future. It was on that basis — we have said this for several years — that we were in favour of moving to an all-island economy in a whole range of areas, the corporation tax issue being one. There are many other initiatives, fiscal initiatives and others, that were raised, at least in a preliminary way, with the President of the European Commission, Mr. Barroso, when he was in Belfast. These are initiatives on which we should follow through.

I do not think this will be an easy case. Obviously the man who tomorrow will become British Prime Minister, Mr. Brown, will be very familiar with the arguments of the Treasury. Most, but not all, senior business people in the North would agree that there is a substantive case at least to examine. I hope that the work Sir David does takes that into account. We will give our input into that.

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