Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome last week's decommissioning which was a recognition by the IRA that it could not bomb 1 million Protestants into a united Ireland. One hopes the IRA is now committed to peaceful means as the only way of securing its objectives.

I joined Fine Gael in the early 1970s when our policy on Northern Ireland encompassed unification by peaceful means and with the consent of a majority in the North. This policy has remained the same and I am pleased that many other parties have adopted a similar approach. Such a policy formed the basis of both the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement and ensured the issue of consent was given sufficient emphasis.

We have always supported a unified approach to the Northern question. I join previous speakers in complimenting everybody involved in the peace process through many years. It is time for Sinn Féin to offer its support to the PSNI and to become involved in the policing board. It is appropriate that we should wish the vice-chairman of the board, Denis Bradley, well following the attack he suffered at the hands of thugs. No other name can be given to the perpetrators.