Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Both the Irish and the British Governments are clear that progress needs to be made. Deputy Smith is correct that we had hoped agreement would be reached in the new year following the Haass talks. Unfortunately, that did not happen, although much progress was made. There was a period of talks after that involving the party leaders. For a variety of reasons, those talks were interrupted and resumed again. The window of opportunity we have now is post the election period and in the run-up to the marching season. I have had a number of discussions with the Secretary of State and will meet her tomorrow in Dublin to discuss further what we can do together to move forward on each issue. There has been quite an amount of discussion at official level between my officials and officials of the Northern Ireland Office and between the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister. Over a period I have also been in contact with the leaders of all the parties in Northern Ireland. We have been urging the DUP, the Unionist parties and all the parties to fully engage and to conclude the process.

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