Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that the basic infrastructure put in place under the Belfast Agreement means that meetings, committees and engagements keep going on no matter what. It is also fair to say that very little progress can be achieved if all sides are simply going through the motions. That is sometimes the sense one gets as one observes the situation. That is what we are getting from the Government and from some of the political parties involved. There is an urgent need to avail of the framework created by the St. Andrews Agreement within which certain issues can be pursued. It is clear that by any yardstick, the Assembly and the Executive are not working optimally. Much more needs to happen if the Executive and the Assembly are to be seen to be working for the better interests of people. In the last year and a half, I have not discerned any single initiative to move the process forward. I do not think the Taoiseach has spent enough time on the issue. I would like to ask him about the case for additional North-South bodies. Has he suggested any particular additional bodies, or additional areas of co-operation between North and South, that could be created under the St. Andrews Agreement or under the review of North-South bodies? If he has, could he outline to the House the areas that might be involved? What is the roadblock in terms of their pursuit? The Taoiseach said that "progress has been disappointingly slow" on the North-South agenda. That is my observation as well. That is why I said what I said recently. At the initial stage of the Good Friday Agreement, significant progress was made under the auspices of a range of North-South bodies like Waterways Ireland and Tourism Ireland. There is now a sense that momentum is being lost and people are just going through the motions. What is the Taoiseach's agenda now in terms of moving the North-South issues on and in terms of the broader implementation of the St. Andrews Agreement? What does he want to achieve in his discussions on the North-South axis and on the British-Irish axis? Has he raised the question of an Irish language act with the British Prime Minister recently? What is his sense in terms of progress with the formulation of such an Act?

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