Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Adams for his contribution. Everybody can agree that the suffering of all victims is the same.

Therefore they deserve justice and for the truth to emerge in respect of each of their sad and tragic cases.

It is true to say that Sinn Féin has signed up to the Haass talks and that other parties have not. Therefore when two parties such as these have a disagreement about an issue the question is whether one can bring them closer together where they can both agree on what the fundamentals of it might be. When I went around the corner in the little town of Windsor on the occasion of the visit of the Uachtarán what struck me was the streetscape. Having equal status and being of equal size with the Union Jack was the Tricolour, on every lamppost outside the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II, which is a strong signal in its own way.

Without issuing any plamás for the Ceann Comhairle, he has done a great deal of work, along with the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, William Hay, MLA, in putting together something people thought might never happen in North-South parliamentary dialogue. I know from reports that where matters were deemed not to be talked about, both of them, as leaders, brought about great understanding in so many ways. This is part of the strategy, Deputy Adams, to see if we can deal with the issues of the past, flags and parades. To coin a phrase they are not going to go away and it is a case of trying to inch forward.

When I spoke to Dr. Haass in New York he was not without hope of being able to resurrect some elements of this and that it might be possible to bring a conclusion to some pieces of it. I understand that he will come over to receive the peace prize in Tipperary later on and that he might make further remarks about this.

I recall being in the United States in 1984 after the New Ireland Forum when all the parties were there with one exception. It was Seamus Mallon who raised the question that the Sinn Féin Party was not there and asked who formed the party. I recall his words very clearly. He stated they were his neighbours in Markethill to whom people might have to give a hand with a tractor as the case might be. As Deputy Adams stated, the people in Ballymurphy are his neighbours but so also are the others.

I was informed of the intention of the Secretary of State to issue a statement about not going ahead in respect of an inquiry for Ballymurphy. I was informed of it late the night before and I did not have a copy of the statement. One of the senior officials at my Department informed me the Department had been told and it was related to it that the Secretary of State intended to issue the statement. It may well be some more detail might have been made available to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Secretary of State is in regular contact on these issues with the Tánaiste as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. I cannot confirm this to the Deputy now but we can check it later.

There is nothing to stop the Prime Minister hosting occasions in the gardens of Downing Street for groups of people. The Deputy states it is political with regard to dealing with the Unionist parties. People were speaking down here about Deputies Adams and Martin getting together at one stage. I do not suppose it was just for discussions, but that is neither here nor there and it is not for me to comment.

I hope the institutions are not set in stone because if they are not set in stone then there is a possibility of change and if there is a possibility of a change, or change of heart, then some of these issues of the past might be able to be moved forward and dealt with. The Good Friday Agreement is the Agreement of the people and all parties here. All parties, in fairness to them, made their contribution over the years in some small way towards the production and process of the Good Friday Agreement becoming a reality, irrespective of what Taoiseach stood here or what party they represented. In their own way they made some element of progress, perhaps not as much as people might have liked at the time, but individually and collectively the Oireachtas and the governments here were amenable to moving the situation in Northern Ireland to a point where we could get agreement.

I know Sinn Féin stated it is a big change when governments are in the lead, and of course it is a true statement of historic fact that the people in a different decade, and now a different century, did support the campaign but it had the legitimacy of the people's endorsement. It was a very different matter to what was the subject of the so-called war by the IRA which did not have the legitimacy and backing of the people and resulted in soldiers, members of the Garda and innocent civilians here being blown asunder also. The Deputy is not coming from the same base in making that point.

The peace process cannot be allowed to be static and nor can we have a situation where a blockage of politics disallows the next generation to move outside that and move on ahead. This is why I am happy to state I was in Donegal yesterday where we examined the question of the Peace Bridge as being symbolic of the new movement ahead. It is a €15 million development of a new science collaboration between the institute of technology in Derry and Letterkenny Institute of Technology with facilities of 50,000 sq. ft. and 20,000 sq. ft. This is the future. In the case of Derry it is a very progressive forward-thinking outlook for the people.

I also like to think the engagement that is genuinely going on between Ministers on a very regular basis is productive and is part of the process of people being able to work together on a range of issues in the interests of North and South, our peoples and our economies. It is the politics of this which are the issue.

I am willing to listen to valid suggestions as to how, when the current electoral process is over, we might be able to move forward again in respect of the three issues Dr. Haass was dealing with. It is not for the co-guarantors, either the Government here or the British Government, to say to the parties in Northern Ireland they are the elected representatives of the people and now they must do this, because this will not work either. If both Governments were to lead to a situation where it goes on interminably this would not be satisfactory either.

President Clinton stated very clearly that he was here 20 years ago when the peace process was put together and that the parties must finish the job. On behalf of the Government here let me state we are more than willing to support the initiatives of the parties. I take it the Deputy has signed up for the Haass talks. He might differ on other opinions with the other parties. At the end of the day, and I see it in Europe on a regular basis where there are disagreements on other matters, compromise and agreement on fundamentals are what make the difference.

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