Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The last point is the salient point. It is more likely to succeed if the parties agree among themselves. If, however, that is not possible, the Governments must take on their responsibilities and respond to public opinion with Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland, whereby people want to see the talks concluded successfully, with the institutions they have voted for working as envisaged.

The need to improve relationships across the board is an important issue for the future. We must engender trust and confidence in all our bona fides and must work in partnership, recognising that the Agreement clearly sets out a basis for equality and partnership where the traditions of all sides are respected, people's cultural requirements are incorporated and diversity is understood as being part and parcel of normalising a society that had been deeply divided.

It is my strong view that the spirit of the Agreement, is just as important as the letter of the Agreement. This is not some inane, abstract mathematical formula about setting up structures for people to coexist peacefully and tolerate each other, it is about people coming to the table with a sense of generosity, understanding and accommodating the views and opinions of others, and doing so in a way that best serves everyone in the community and promotes security and stability and support for democracy. The institutions that have been devised to give expression to that diversity and difference. Unless that is added to the equation, unfortunately we see from time to time a crisis of sorts beginning to arise. We need to liberate the process by people having the confidence to, of course, put forward their views, but also to work the institutions and to work with people with whom one has committed to work on the basis of mutual respect and seeking to accommodate one another's points of view in a sensible and coherent way.

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