Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Any joint parliamentary forum is a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Dáil Éireann. Following discussions between the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Ceann Comhairle, two working groups were established to develop proposals for such a body, one in the Assembly chaired by the Speaker, and the other in the Oireachtas chaired by the Ceann Comhairle. The work of these groups is under way and their proposals will be considered by the Assembly and the Oireachtas in due course. I am pleased to see that progress is being made on that important initiative.

I also understand there has been a fuller representation across the Unionist political family in respect of the British-IrishParliamentary Assembly in recent times, which is very welcome. I hope those bodies help to provide a forum for trust and confidence, and that better relationships can be established between parliamentarians, and by extension, between both sides of the island. When I was on the original British-Irish parliamentary forum in the late 1980s, there were many misgivings and misunderstandings on all sides about the role and capacity of others to see issues in a broader perspective. That forum played its own minor but important role in bringing along a process of engagement which ultimately led us to where we are today. All the institutional bodies envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement and the St. Andrews Agreement should be up and running and used to their full potential, in order to carry out that limited but important role in helping to provide a good foundation for further political progress.

Trying to find economic and fiscal parity between both sides of the island is an ongoing task and is one that can best be undertaken by the engagement through these North-South bodies, as they would help people understand the full picture and the mutual benefit involved. However, the hand of the Treasury is very strong on these matters in Northern Ireland. The party leaders and the leaders of the Northern Ireland Executive are engaged in discussions with the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer about the level of funding they can expect in the years ahead from their central administration. The Treasury has not, it claims, much room for manoeuvre, a debate which is in the first instance internal to the Executive, the Assembly, the British Government and Westminster Parliament. What derives out of that relationship will determine what will emerge.

The business community has put questions in regard to similar corporation tax rates to the authorities concerned. The Prime Minister has responded, not in terms of agreeing that is the solution but by suggesting there are other variants he could propose. That is an ongoing issue for the future. From my point of view, it is important, arising out of this turbulence, financial and economic, we achieve stability in terms of exchange rate policy that will enable people to invest with a greater degree of security than the recent changes in the exchange rate have allowed for. That is an important issue. It is hoped the exchange rate issue will stabilise as soon as possible in the interests of both sides.

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