Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

On behalf of our group and all Members, I welcome the Taoiseach back to the House. He has been here on two occasions since the new Seanad was elected in 2002. Whatever our differences about some of the details of the matter, which the Taoiseach put on the record, everyone in this House recognises the major contribution and effort his Government and officials have made. It is painstaking work, requiring significant amounts of time and sincere efforts to try to resolve the remaining problems that lie in the way of the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. My party recognises that and I thank the Taoiseach for coming today.

I do not need to put on record the historic role played by my party in advancing the peace process, not just over the past ten years but over the past 30 years. This role has included involvement in the Sunningdale Agreement, the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, when there was, unfortunately, a breakdown in the bipartisan approach that had historically been taken on Northern Ireland, through to the party's short period in Government when the Framework Documents were published.

There is no greater prize in this country than peace and a total end to the violence we have seen over the past 35 years. This is the greatest national objective we face. It is important to state that this is everybody's peace process. It does not belong only to the IRA and Sinn Féin whose members regularly tell us we would not have a peace process if not for them. We had a peace process years before the IRA decided to stop its murderous campaign.

Those of us in constitutional politics have argued and conceded the principle of consent. Fine Gael did so through the document published in 1971 by former Taoiseach Garrett FitzGerald and former Deputy Paddy Harte, entitled Towards a New Ireland. Fianna Fáil conceded the principle some years later. Constitutional Nationalist politicians have always accepted the peace process. I get frustrated when I hear those most recent converts to the notion of peaceful politics lecturing the rest of us on this issue. The peace process belongs to everyone and we each have a responsibility to make it work.

I am somewhat alarmed by developments in recent years whereby those parties that have done so much to foster peace and reconciliation, particularly the SDLP and Mr. David Trimble's UUP in Northern Ireland, are now somewhat at the edges. Having failed to build a process on a multi-party basis, we now seem to work on the basis of the two extremes, the DUP on one side and Sinn Féin on the other. In a sense, those two parties have done everything in their power in recent years to make their own political ends from the Agreement. This is reprehensible.

I wish to echo a comment made by former Senator Seamus Mallon over the weekend. He said, "We do not want to see the Balkanisation of Northern Ireland, where we have the leadership of Nationalist, Catholic, republican Ireland through the form of Mr. Adams, and the leadership of Unionist Ireland through the form of Dr. Paisley." There are many parties in Northern Ireland, all with something to contribute. I plead with the Taoiseach to take on board the sincere views offered by the SDLP, through its leader, Mr. Mark Durkan, over the past 48 hours. We must involve everyone. This type of zero sum game which excludes some opinion to the advantage of the larger parties is doomed to failure. The Taoiseach is sensitive to this and understands it, especially in regard to the SDLP.

I wish to raise three issues, the first of which relates to Seanad reform. Over the years, we have had many fine contributions from colleagues from Northern Ireland. The current representative is Senator Maurice Hayes, who is a great tribute to this House and a great proponent of peace. His perceptions and views add significantly to debate in the House. Even at this early stage, however, and having listened to the Taoiseach's view, I contend that the process of Seanad reform should not be cherry-picked. If the Seanad is to be reformed, all relevant proposals should be on the table and we should see it through.