Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin is ready for the talks. We will enter them to resolve outstanding issues and we will always abide by any agreements made. We have lived up to all our commitments in the past and sought to promote peace and reconciliation, inclusion and equality. We have tried to work with all parties and none in the institutions in good faith, and we are committed to the whole idea of power sharing. However, there is an agenda within political unionism that is being driven, it would appear, by an anti-Agreement axis and the unwillingness of the leadership of political unionism to share power is undermining the agreements.

We are concerned that the British Government has assumed an explicitly partisan and pro-Unionist party stance and has been cosying up to Unionist politicians, which may be to do with the next election down the road. Did the Minister discuss this with the British Government? Will the Government act as a defender and a champion of progress in the North and hold the British Government to account for its failure to implement key aspects of the Agreement? These outstanding matters have come up repeatedly at meetings of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. We want to see clear progress in that regard. For too long we have stepped back and we need to move forward.

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