Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I want to reiterate my commendation of the work of the SDLP, the Alliance Party and the Sinn Féin Party prior to the end of the year in making a genuine effort to reach agreement. It is most regrettable that the UUP has now withdrawn from those five-party talks. I believe that more urgency needs to be attached to this. If we have it in the back of our minds that progress cannot be made until after the European and local elections, then we will be into another season of marching with all its attendant problems. Could the minister of State give us a very clear commitment that the Government along with its co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the British Government, will give these talks that extra momentum and give the process leadership to ensure that these contentious issues are dealt with? We do not want to have a weekend such as the one we had in Lurgan very recently or increased dissident activity. We had all hoped that this was gone from our island. That trouble caused by a very small minority in Northern Ireland cannot be allowed to fester.

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