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

Let me make it very simple: no one has the right to question Fianna Fáil's good faith in relation to Northern Ireland. I refer to speech after speech made in the House and elsewhere that show how for seven straight years we have been pointing to the inevitability, unfortunately, of reaching this crisis point if the two Governments did not change their behaviour. We would much rather have talked about how great the progress was, but during the years the facts did not support this.

The current Government does not appear to understand the difference between the number of meetings one holds and the level and quality of that engagement. The fact is that no one can credibly claim that the scale and quality of engagement has been anything near what it was under the Ahern-Blair or Cowen-Brown leaderships. A critical difference then was that there was no negotiating over the airwaves or obsession with briefing before and after every contact. There is no comparable example of the fiasco of the visit of the Taoiseach and Prime Minister to Belfast, which appears to have actually accelerated the breakdown. Having participated in relations between our Government and the unionist parties, I find it disappointing to see the current palpable lack of trust. We have gone from a position whereby I was allowed to chair a strand one session to one whereby key parties now refuse even to attend a meeting with the Taoiseach. Equally, we have been too silent on the near systematic exclusion of nearly 45% of the Northern electorate from representation in the talks. I noted the Tánaiste's remarks in this regard, but it is time for this to be changed. I am surprised by the lack of self-reflection we have seen from the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in identifying failed dynamics in recent years. It is also unhelpful that media briefings and statements are now so central to dialogue. In the past, the previous Sinn Féin leader adopted the approach-----

See this speech in context