Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Fine Gael supports the Independent Monitoring Commission Bill. We have tabled some technical amendments to the Bill, which we can go through on Committee and Report Stages. I understand the importance of this legislation, which was needed in 1998, not 2003. If we had the kind of role and scope that is now being put in place in the Bill then, whereby an independent commission could adjudicate on the facts concerning the ability of parties in the North to stand by their obligations, we might not be in the mess we are currently. This is an excellent idea but it has come too late because we do not have the institutions in Northern Ireland. It is clear that the recent election there delivered a result which will make it more difficult than before to restore those institutions. In effect, the commission will become an ombudsman in Northern Ireland, adjudicating on complaints on a variety of matters, but we needed such a body five years ago.

It is important, however, to have an independent monitoring body in place to call a spade a spade and deliver the hard truths about the situation to politicians in Northern Ireland. The two largest parties on either side of the divide, the DUP and Sinn Féin, currently oppose this legislation. The DUP vociferously opposed it in the House of Commons, while the current position of Sinn Féin, the biggest Nationalist party, is also opposed to the legislation. That is because for the first time this legislation can recommend that sanctions be imposed on parties that are in breach of the Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Féin does not want that because it has been consistently and deliberately in breach of its commitments under the Agreement as the issue of decommissioning has not been resolved.