Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have already welcomed the resumption on 2 June of the party leaders’ talks in Belfast. The party leaders this week will hold the first of two intensive three day sessions with a view to narrowing the remaining gaps between them and for developing the practical mechanisms and related timeframe for implementation. They will hold a second three day session next week from 8 July to 10 July. The parties have also established a secretariat of Northern Ireland civil servants to support the talks. This is a welcome development.

In my ongoing meetings and contacts with the party leaders and with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, most recently on 24 June, I have stressed the importance of securing an agreement on the outstanding issues. The party leaders have individually acknowledged to me that there is broad agreement on the basic architecture for moving forward on the issues of flags, parades and dealing with the past. I firmly believe that it is in the best interests of Northern Ireland that agreement is reached as soon as possible. It is particularly important now during the marching season and before the summer recess that politics is seen to be working for the benefit of all communities in the North.

During my visit to Washington DC from 17 June to 19 June, I heard genuine concern being expressed by political, business and community leaders on the need for progress in the party leaders' talks. I conveyed this to each of the Northern Ireland party leaders on my return on 20 June.

The Government believes, as I know do all Deputies in this House, that the framework and path for peace that was agreed and democratically endorsed through the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and in other agreements since, was the right framework and the right path towards a peaceful and reconciled society in Northern Ireland. I believe that an agreement now on these contentious issues would represent further progress along that path.

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