Seanad debates

Tuesday, 9 December 2003

Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Second Stage.

 

On the Agreement itself, a certain à la carte approach has been taken by parties and others. For example, we saw the delay in holding the election, despite opposition from various parties and from the Government. The North-South Ministerial Bodies have not functioned in the manner in which we would have envisaged at the outset. North-South Ministerial Councils have not functioned in some areas either because of opposition and withdrawal of co-operation. It is important that in moving along we do not take an absolute position on all aspects of the Agreement. It is a holistic Agreement and therefore there are obligations on everybody to fulfil its terms fully, willingly and in a co-operative way. I realise there are difficulties in achieving that but I would have some concerns that in the meantime we might move ahead of everybody else and not encourage them to fulfil their particular responsibilities. I do not want to labour the point too much because to some extent it is a question of optics but where another country is defined in our legislation, that definition is also there for international legal interpretation. In doing that, we should be conscious of our responsibilities to fulfil the aspiration within the Constitution.

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