Seanad debates

Thursday, 8 May 2003

Northern Ireland: Statements.

 

10:30 am

Photo of Martin ManserghMartin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I warmly welcome the contribution of the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and I express my appreciation for the ongoing critical bipartisan spirit coming from the Opposition parties, which has been helpful for many years. I am naturally disappointed that there has not been a breakthrough. I compliment the Governments on the determination, commitment and leadership they have shown. I had hoped, because the prize was so big, that perhaps we would get the breakthrough. In the Joint Declaration we can all see for ourselves the progress that was, and is, promised on policing, demilitarisation, decommissioning and institutional stability.

There is no doubt that the stop-start nature of the process post-Agreement was not satisfactory, even if it was a vast improvement on what went before. Stability and momentum are badly needed. The Northern Ireland economy, not to mention the people, suffers from institutional instability. Indeed, the absolute primacy of politics over economics that obtains in the North has relatively few parallels elsewhere. Equally, the continued interruptions do not serve the momentum that most of us wish to see and that republicans, for as long as I can remember in dealing with them, have always demanded.

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