It did not prove possible to reach the agreement that we had hoped for in advance of the elections to the Assembly last month. That election has created a number of new imponderables. I cannot pretend that I am in a position to tell the House exactly how the political situation will evolve in the light of the Assembly elections. For its part, the Irish Government will do all it can to help achieve agreement among the parties but I stress that this must be in the context of the Good Friday Agreement. One way or the other, it is a fair assessment at this stage to say that the Independent Monitoring Commission will play a key role in future developments.