Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are now entering an important point in the implementation process of the Stormont House Agreement. A number of target dates over a range of the areas included in the agreement will arise in the weeks ahead. To achieve these will require a concerted effort and an intensive political investment from the Northern Ireland Executive, from the UK Government and from the Irish Government.

It is important to recall how far we have come already in terms of the collective achievement of getting the Stormont House Agreement over the line in December and the progress made since then in implementing it. Since the start of the year, the two Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive parties have held two comprehensive formal review meetings. In February, a report on new priorities for North-South co-operation was agreed at a North-South Ministerial Council meeting in Belfast. Officials from Dublin, London and Belfast are preparing the groundwork for legislation to establish the new institutions for dealing with the past and the Northern Ireland party leaders continue to meet on a weekly basis to take forward work across the broad areas of responsibility they undertook in Stormont House.

It is disappointing that difficulties have recently arisen around the welfare element of the Stormont House Agreement. The Government is committed to the implementation of the totality of the provisions of the agreement and it is important to ensure that the developments around the welfare issue do not have a corrosive impact on the wider implementation of the agreement.

Now that the Westminster elections are over and a new UK Government is in place, there is an opportunity and obligation to refocus our efforts to implement the next phases of the agreement. I spoke with each of the Northern Ireland Executive party leaders in recent days and set out the Irish Government’s views in this regard. This is an opportunity to demonstrate that politics delivers and to create a way forward on issues that have been a source of difficulty for far too long. I will also discuss these issues with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, when I meet her later today, following on from our constructive telephone conversation last week. There are challenges ahead, not least on the issue of welfare, but I am confident that, working together in good faith, the parties in the Executive can deliver the solutions the people of Northern Ireland expect and deserve.

The next implementation and review meeting will take place in late June, when a six-month progress report will also be published by the two Governments. I will continue to keep this House informed of progress in that regard.

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