Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that it is a journey everybody is on. I also agree that this is an opportunity to take another step forward. It might be a very good idea if everybody could get together and say Dr. Haass made genuine attempts to move the process forward and ask could we not come to agreements on a range of issues about the past, parades and flags. As I have said before to the Deputy, when one meets the people from Ballymurphy, one taps into the reservoir of raw emotion because the matter was never concluded. When one talks to the survivors of the Kingsmills massacre, there is the same emotion for people on the island of Ireland who feel the issue has never been satisfactorily concluded in the sense of finding out what happened. I have also said on many occasions to the Deputy that there is the question of the families of the disappeared who have not had closure.

Everybody could take from the visit of President Higgins to Britain an opportunity to reflect again on what we could do for young people, North and South, who would see the excitement of being able to conclude issues arising from the past and look forward to the adventure of the future. Politicians have that responsibility; that is what they were elected to do. The Government will work tooth and nail to bring about that sort of understanding, but we cannot forget about the British, with whom we have a very close, unprecedented relationship, through economics, business and in many other ways. The Good Friday Agreement speaks for itself. We need to move to have it concluded and fully implemented, with the Weston Park agreement, and deal with the other issues that affect people every day of their lives in fragile communities on either side. I hope that from this will come an opportunity to move the process forward.

The Deputy cannot blame the Government of the Republic for everything.

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