Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree with any of that. The question is what new structures would be helpful in terms of bringing this process forward and is an independent chair part of that. I do not think the two Governments are in any way precious about that. What we want is to try to respond in a way that helps the parties - by that I mean all parties, not only the big two - to come together to accommodate each other to form a fully inclusive Executive, and currently it is a big challenge to do that. Often before agreements were made there was a lot of pessimism. The job of the two Governments is to work together, to trust each other and to try to bring about a situation whereby the political environment changes. That is what we have to do in the coming weeks and months. There may well be a role for an independent chair as part of a new process but we need to determine how that process will work for us. Simply naming a new chair on its own certainly will not take this process forward.

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