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

At the heart of the shocking violence that has spilled across the streets in Belfast in the past six weeks and the economic damage it has wrought is a profound problem with how politics works in Northern Ireland. If politics is not clearly about the bread and butter issues of making people's quality of life better, it will all too quickly revert to being all about flags, emblems and parades and the bleak chronicle of flashpoints that have defined public life in Northern Ireland for too many people for far too long.

My critique is based on a deeply held belief that the Executive can and must work for ordinary citizens. It is the belief that the peace process was supposed to be much more than just an absence of violence. If the Executive is not making real progress in tackling head-on the challenges people in the North face on a daily basis, we cannot be surprised when a section of society unleashes chaos and brings a city to a standstill. I condemn unequivocally and unreservedly what has happened in terms of the disturbances and the impact they have had on business, jobs and the quality of life of people.

Some have dismissed the riots as just a Unionist problem. I think that is a mistake because those of us who want to advance republican politics know what the peace process must deliver for all communities. It is also a mistake because disregard for the rule of law is not simply confined to angry thugs in east Belfast. As recently as November, for example, we watched as Sinn Féin's justice spokesperson led 300 protesters on a picket of PSNI headquarters in east Belfast.

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