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

Paramilitaries are unfortunately still a part of Northern Ireland. They are a very small minority within communities and we need to be very careful not to label certain communities and areas as supportive of, or dominated by, paramilitarism. The report the Deputy refers to is absolutely right. Whatever about the challenges for devolved government in Northern Ireland, where parties are working together to deal with a legacy issue that needs a comprehensive response to do away with the criminality, intimidation and bullying of communities that paramilitary structures thrive on, to try to facilitate that without devolved government is very difficult. In many cases, that puts the PSNI in an impossible and sometimes dangerous position. I pay tribute to the PSNI and encourage nationalists and unionists to apply to be part of the future of policing in Northern Ireland. It is really important that we have that balance. What is needed here for policing and communities is to see political leaders working together to stamp out the impact of paramilitary activity within communities. I hope that a new Executive will be deeply committed to that and to working with the PSNI to do it, as well as working with community leaders which is as important as policing to bring about that change.

I need to be careful not to comment too much on the health workers and the industrial action threatened for today because the Irish Government does not have a role in policy and decision making in certain areas in Northern Ireland. However, it is very clear, and I spoke to the Secretary of State about this, that what is needed to address healthcare concerns and pressures in Northern Ireland is a health minister in Stormont who can negotiate with Westminster to get the funding needed and can change policy in areas where that is needed. There is a real health crisis in Northern Ireland. We need a department of health, led by a minister, to be able to make the necessary changes and financial decisions around that.

In respect of a different form of Executive the important point is that we try to remain true to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement which does recognise that Northern Ireland would evolve over time. What we are trying to design is not some fundamental change in direction but recognising flaws in the way in which the institutions functioned before that perhaps contributed to their collapse and trying to ensure that is less likely to happen again in the future. Ultimately, what will maintain a sustainable Executive in the future will be trust and relationships between political parties and their leaders.

Sometimes there is party politics in the way we debate in this Chamber but all of the parties are working hard to restore an Executive. That includes Sinn Féin, the DUP and the smaller parties - the SDLP, the Alliance Party and the UUP. There is no one party, or group of parties, that is trying to deliberately frustrate the process. There is a real open mind to trying to get a sensible foundation based on compromise and accommodation of other people's views that I believe this time can ensure we are not at another false dawn for a return to devolved government and that we can achieve the restoration of a Stormont Executive and a functioning Assembly in the short term.

See this speech in context