Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Taoiseach's remarks about the blockade of Gaza. We discussed this issue to some degree last week. I was pleased that the Taoiseach agreed to raise the EU heads of mission report on Jerusalem with our European partners. I hope the Government can use this State's term as holder of the EU Presidency as a vehicle to encourage people in the region to embrace a peace process.

I join the Taoiseach in commending the work done by Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State and before she held that position. I assume the Taoiseach will meet her successor, John Kerry, when he visits the United States. I welcome last week's statement by the Taoiseach that he intends to raise the plight of the undocumented Irish and the issue of E3 visas. I understand that approximately 50,000 Irish citizens are directly affected by all of this.

I may have misheard the Taoiseach when I thought he said he has not raised the cases of Pat Finucane, Marian Price and Martin Corey. If I heard him properly and that is the case, I think it is a mistake. These cases should be raised every single time the Government gets an opportunity to do so. I will be looking to the Taoiseach to raise them with his hosts when he visits the United States.

I am pleased the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have reasserted the centrality and principles of the Good Friday Agreement. We have to go much further than that. When I spent the day in Belfast yesterday, I met many people, including people from the Unionist section of our community, who have deep concerns about where the peace process is at present. Some aspects of the Good Friday Agreement have yet to be implemented. Of course it is an international agreement. The structures and all the other protocols that arise from it are the business of people who are in the institutions. In addition, they are primarily the business of the two Governments. The Governments have to be guarantors of the rights of citizens during this transitional period.

The Orange marching season starts earlier this year. There is extreme anxiety in what are referred to as interface areas. That affects both sections of the community. Some people are actively trying to frazzle away, cut away or whittle away confidence in the peace process. I welcome every party, particularly in this Dáil, being heavily involved in the North. I think that is really important. I welcome that very much. However, it is important for us to tell it as it is. I listen to the leader of Fianna Fáil on his occasional visits talking about inertia and suggesting Sinn Féin and the DUP are not working properly.

He knows that is not the case. He knows that the Deputy First Minister, Mr. Martin McGuinness, is a leader above reproach in terms of his commitment to all of these matters. He knows, for understandable reasons, that Unionist leaders are less eager to embrace a process of change because they see this as a zero-sum game. There is a big job of work to be done by the Governments and the rest of us in re-injecting confidence, particularly in those neighbourhoods which were most affected by the conflict and which have not had any economic dividend.

I record a great debt of thanks to Sir George Quigley who died recently. He was a sterling ambassador for economic regeneration, equality and an all-island economic model.

To what does all of this come down? I emphasise the need to be vigilant on the outstanding issues in respect of the Good Friday Agreement but also on what can sometimes be the fragile state of the peace process which is valued by everyone on the island, particularly those who live in the North, and which has to be continuously nurtured and nourished.

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