Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss Northern Ireland. One of the first requests I received when we met some weeks ago was for the Minister to come to the House to discuss this issue. We are pleased he has come after his meeting with Dr. John Reid, Minister Jane Kennedy and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, in Belfast yesterday. During that meeting they discussed how to move the process forward and avoid stalemate. I was struck by a remark the Minister made in the other House yesterday that Northern Ireland is about politics and people and that structures, of whatever nature, are not viable unless the will of the people is implemented.

As we look back over the past four years, as the Minister did today, we realise that a lot has been achieved. It is easy to glide over those achievements. The Good Friday Agreement was endorsed by the people, North and South. Politicians were given a clear mandate to get on with the job, while taking into account the sensitivity of the parties involved and the positions from which they came and endeavouring to merge them together in a satisfactory whole. I remember that fraught Good Friday and the Ministers and officials returning to Baldonnel. We then had to set out on the difficult and arduous road of combining all that was best in the Agreement with the legislation and the establishment of the various bodies, particularly the North-South Ministerial Council and the all-Ireland implementation bodies, which have played a vital role.

The Minister said today that 67 North-South Ministerial Council meetings took place which helped to move matters forward in the North and the South. It is a staggering number of meetings in a relatively short period and highlights how much has been achieved. I attended many of those meetings. There were one to one sessions with Sir Reg Empey both here and in the North. The gas agreement, for example, meant a lot to Northern Ireland and all the parties in it. Given that this is an island, we had to ensure business was conducted in a common sense way which would benefit each individual unit. It was good to work harmoniously together to develop and further the causes of the people.

Devolved government is about democracy and about those who have been elected coming together to work through daily issues, such as those related to agriculture and education. Those two areas come to mind because they were to the forefront in Northern Ireland. The robust and strong debates in the Assembly showed how the everyday business of politics had taken root with great celerity. There were common issues to discuss, such as those relating to agriculture which does not know any geographical or religious bounds. Agriculture is a subject of daily interest to those involved in it. Similarly, I took a great interest in education, an area in which many significant changes were being made. We must remember that people voted for a devolved Assembly and for politicians to get on with it, which is what happened.