Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. There is a need for him and the British Prime Minister to meet urgently and then, in consultation with the parties in Northern Ireland, to draw up a framework to create fresh momentum in the political situation in the North and create a new agenda to move the process onwards.

A community relations council report to the Assembly this week was disturbing in respect of the revelations - if one could call them that - concerning the significant underachievement in education, health and social areas among a significant proportion of the population of west and north Belfast, particularly among specific groupings. The statistic are damning and it is worrying with regard to the future for young people - young males, in particular - in those areas in the context of their having a sense of engagement with society and a sense of future and ownership in that society in respect of education participation, employment and so on.

Looking at the medium term, if we get over this difficult phase, there is an urgent need on behalf of both governments to up their game in the level of their engagement and to create a new agenda to drive forward stability within Northern Ireland that involves a socioeconomic dimension as well. I put that to the Taoiseach in good faith.

Have the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach made it clear to all the political leaders in Northern Ireland that they cannot pick and choose in the context of political recognition of the primacy of the rule of law, whether it is the decisions of the PSNI in prosecuting particular cases or the Parades Commission in the independent adjudication it may make on particular parades, and that it is not on for the First Minister or the Deputy First Minister to decide when they show confidence in those institutions and when they do not? Their performance in recent times has undermined public confidence in shared institutions. It took a great deal of work to build them up, and what can the public expect if the leaders are not behaving in a responsible and reasonable manner?

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