Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I recall speaking on the ceasefire and all the different steps which have taken place during my time in the Dáil. However, this is, in may ways, the most significant event. I thank the Taoiseach, Prime Minister Brown, the Ministers and our professional staff who are often unrecognised but who do an important job behind the scenes, for their work on this agreement. As has been said, we must also pay tribute to General John de Chastelain, the Secretary of State, Ms Clinton for their involvement. Above all, we must pay tribute to our President and her husband Martin for their work behind the scenes on this issue to bring us to 5 February.

The deal has been worked out between the two main parties. That it took ten days to reach an agreement is important because it is not a rushed deal. All the issues have been teased out and the Minister, Deputy Martin, had a part to play in that. That there is a deal between the people of Northern Ireland which was not imposed on them cannot be overemphasised. The future now depends on how the two parties concerned treat their other counterparts, such as the SDLP, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Alliance Party in the future and whether the Assembly is seen to work together as a united organisation and not as divided groups.

The proof of how the agreement is put into operation is something positive which we all want to see. Policing and justice will now be handed back to the Northern Ireland Assembly and we do not yet know who will be the minister. Whoever it is, it is vital that he or she gets the full commitment of all parties in Northern Ireland. If people are committed to democracy, they must be prepared to co-operate with the PSNI, the Garda and any other organisation to make sure that whoever is at fault in trying to continue to plant bombs, etc., stops. More than 3,000 lives have been lost. Very often we forget those who have been maimed and lost limbs, and who will live with the situation for the rest of their lives.

One only has to think of the recent attacks on the PSNI, in which Constable Peader Heffron, who is a staunch GAA supporter and a Catholic by birth, was obviously targeted to try to stop people from the minority side in Northern Ireland from joining the force. The bombs found in Forkhill, Donegal and other places is proof that there is still a rump out there. That young people are being brought into the negative or dissident organisations is frightening. We must have hope that the new justice system in Northern Ireland, if it is backed by the general public and by democratic organisations, can deal with this situation.

I congratulate Ms Margaret Ritchie on her appointment as leader of the SDLP and I thank Mark Durkan for all he has done. The SDLP was very active in the entire issue from the start, from John Hume to Seamus Mallon and others. I do not forget the UUP and others who also played their part. Today we have an agreement made by the people of Northern Ireland among themselves. They now have the opportunity to prove they can make it work in a positive, constructive and caring way. There are people trying to claim full responsibility for this who say that others were at fault. I remember well the times when others, on all sides, failed for years to move forward when they were meant to do so. I ask people to forget the blame game at this stage and try to be constructive and positive. I, too, live in the Border area and I remember all the troubles there. I stood at the graves of those on both sides of the divide and I never want to have to do so again.

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