Seanad debates

Thursday, 8 May 2003

Northern Ireland: Statements.

 

The Minister referred to the elections. It was a very difficult call for the Government to make because the problem with advancing to the election stage was that the outcome was not guaranteed. In effect, people would not have been elected to an assembly because if the composition had been more difficult in terms of the extreme Unionist and Nationalist sides, it would have been virtually impossible to make a deal stick. The number of months we now have to make one final push at this effort, ultimately leading to an election, could give us the breathing space we need because I do not believe, were an election to be held at the end of this month, it would help the situation. I fully understand what the Government has said in this regard but there was no way out, the election had to be postponed because there was nothing to which people could be elected.

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