Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

We are all agreed that we want peace to happen and we support the efforts of the Quartet in this regard. However, if one takes the full list of issues - including prisoners, refugees, the future status of Jerusalem, settlements in the West Bank, borders and so on - they all require a type of permanent structure such as could be delivered through a secretariat. Moreover, the existence of a secretariat would mean that when the political moment is not hopeful, one could deal, through text, with aspects of the problem. Such a structure, as I said, would also be a conduit to the Arab League and to the Foreign Ministers of the region and so on.

There is a difficulty in that some members of the Quartet are not engaged at all. As a consequence one is pushed to a reliance on talks which are suddenly loaded with a political outcome. One wishes the process well and hopes that the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, will deliver agreement, but one is still left with all the other issues. The position of the United States as a guarantor on one side of the argument means it is very reluctant to delegate anything to a secretariat that might be in continuous dialogue about the issue. I see nothing tangible from the efforts of Mr. Blair since his arrival in his role.

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