Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Leader and the Opposition leaders for this opportunity to address this important issue. Our support goes to the Taoiseach, the British Prime Minister and all the parties and officials involved. I know from experience how long, protracted and difficult these discussions can be. However, in the end they proved fruitful. When we look back over ten or 15 years, we can see that significant progress has been made. Whenever one goes into the international arena one hears talk about the process. President Bush used the phrase, "the incredible progress of the Northern Ireland peace process", to describe it. I attended another conference last week where the Northern Ireland peace process was seen as one of the successes compared with others which are in grave difficulties.

If there is hesitation and difficulty at the moment, it is partly because of the sheer ambition of the hurdle that is now to be cleared. It is about some of the issues that have been discussed, but it is also about policing and completing the participation in policing. It is also about dismantling many of the military installations, about justice and equality and putting the institutions back on a firm and stable basis. I have lost count of the number of times the institutions have been suspended or their operation partially interrupted. The stop-go course is not serving anyone's interests. At the early stages of the peace process, I remember being preached to about the importance of maintaining momentum. It is difficult to maintain momentum if there is stalling on completing what each party has to do. One cannot expect other people to complete their entire agenda while one holds back on one's own agenda.

It is nine years since the first ceasefire and five years since the Good Friday Agreement. A line has to be drawn under the past. The republican tradition, much of which is honourable and underlies this State, dates from a pre-democratic past. In a Northern Ireland context, the conflict, however deplorable, arose out of a type of one-party state, the denial of civil rights and so on. We can argue about the rights and wrongs of all that but those circumstances have fundamentally changed. We have a democratic framework that has been established by the concurrent self-determination of the people of Ireland, North and South. It requires clarity and an exclusive commitment, not merely from the political parties, but also from organisations associated with them. All the main players, be they republican, loyalist and everything in between, have given that commitment. It is necessary for the organisations associated with them to act in consequence.

It is a difficult hurdle. I know the difficulties involved in taking that step and even some of the risks and dangers for some of the people involved. It is essential that the step be taken. Naturally I would prefer if that step were taken tomorrow rather than next week or next month. I have no doubt it will be taken. However pessimistic I might be in the very short term, I am optimistic in the short to medium term because there is no other course open to anyone.