Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the views expressed by Deputy Brendan Smith on the importance of parliamentary interaction between the two assemblies when the Assembly is restored. In order to facilitate that discussion, the Assembly must be restored. There is a notion that in some way, if things are left in abeyance for long enough, everything will fade away and we will go back to where we were.

The Good Friday Agreement set down distinctly the pillars of society into the future and the need to observe the curtilege of the agreement, which is widespread. The agreement has aspirations that are well-catered for and assumptions, of which it was mindful at the time. We cannot go back and any vision on anybody's part of the possibility of going backwards does not arise. It was a formal international agreement that has worked well. It now behoves us all to encourage the highest possible degree of interaction between the bodies without disappointing or excluding anybody but ensuring that the peace agreement grows and evolves as time goes by.

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