Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to lead statements on Northern Ireland. It is significant that he chose to impart to us the information he gained from yesterday's meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, for which I am grateful. I wish to inform him of the all-party support in this House for the full and comprehensive implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. He enjoys the support of my party and its members for his efforts, and those of the Government, as they go forward to work our way out of the current impasse. The Government can rest assured of that support. I also thank the Leader of the House for providing us with the opportunity to debate this matter.

We are in a difficult situation. We have been here before, but this is the third time that the institutions have been suspended since they were established as a result of the Good Friday Agreement. It is paramount that both Governments take ownership of the difficulties faced by all the parties and confront them with a way out of the problems. If there is a political vacuum in Northern Ireland, there are very dangerous consequences for the people of Northern Ireland, where frequently paramilitaries take the place of politicians and fill the vacuum with vicious and violent crimes.

I agree with the Minister about the importance of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference which he rightly stated is an essential part of strand three of the Agreement. I disagree publicly with the comments made by the Ulster Unionist Party about its importance. It is as much a part of the Agreement as anything else and was established to ensure that when difficulties such as those being encountered at present arose, the two Governments could take ownership of the issue. It was an amalgam of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference established under the Anglo-Irish Agreement. It is vitally important that there is a mechanism in place to deal with these outstanding issues, where the two Governments, in effect the guarantors of the process when it breaks down, can ensure it is up and running again with the goodwill of all parties. Any suggestion that the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is not an essential part of the Agreement is nonsense. I hope those outside the House listen to me on this issue.

How do we move forward? The Minister and Senator Mansergh know more about this than other Members. There is a need for contact between all of the parties concerned to get us out of the current impasse. Intensive round table discussions are required. However, I strike a note of caution. We have been here twice before since 1998 and must now inject an element of realism into the debate. Specific commitments given in the Good Friday Agreement on the key issues of decommissioning and putting paramilitarism to one side for good have not been honoured. That ensured the breakdown of trust. There are many other issues, such as security normalisation and the assurances on policing reforms, but it is unacceptable that four years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and a new form of self-determination was established on the island, paramilitarism of any sort, be it republican or loyalist, continues. That is the cancer in the current process and the problem to which we must all face up.