Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I have two questions for the Taoiseach arising from his reply. With regard to the North-South parliamentary forum, my understanding of the communiqué issued on 17 July following the North-South Ministerial Council meeting in Armagh was that the two Governments would take the initiative to contact the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Oireachtas with a view to progressing the establishment of the forum. I would like to know whether that initiative was taken. The Taoiseach's reply referred to contacts but these appear to have been initiated in the case of Northern Ireland by the Speaker of the Assembly.

In regard to the murder of Paul Quinn, the Taoiseach will recall the considerable hurt experienced by the Quinn family and the anger in the locality due to comments he made on the matter in this House in October. He stated that the murder appeared to be linked to local criminal activity and was not paramilitary but pertained to feuds about criminality. He referred today to the meeting the Quinn family held yesterday with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, about which they expressed their satisfaction that the Minister accepted on behalf of the Government that Mr. Quinn had not been involved in criminal activity. Will the Taoiseach take this opportunity to withdraw the remarks he made about the matter in October in order to correct the record and confirm what the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, told the family yesterday?

See this speech in context