Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Haass made it clear that the proposals he put together were part of a package. I think the proposals were the seventh draft and they reflected many long hours of hard work and compromise. Does the Tánaiste accept that the final proposals and documents were all about compromise and mutual agreement and were not partisan? I do not think they reflect any one party's view of how to resolve the situation but were collective. Dr. Haass pointed out that the negotiations have now concluded and parties need to respond and move to implementation. The Good Friday Agreement and the ancillary agreements provide the context to address parades, identities and the past. Does the Tánaiste accept that non-implementation means that these issues will continue to bog down not only political moves forward, but also the overall peace process itself? As Deputy Smith said, a number of parties have agreed to them, including Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP.

The Tánaiste said he was in touch with Dr. Haass and so on but the optics were wrong in this regard. Some commentators almost suggested that a sort of ambiguous role was being taken by the two Governments and that they were actually hard-hearted in regard to their involvement and were stepping back. Does the Tánaiste agree the optics in that regard possibility did not help the situation?

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