Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Some of the media reported, on foot of the selective leaking of the IMC report and other issues, that the IICD had acknowledged that the IRA has retained some weapons, but the exact opposite is in fact the case. We were somewhat bemused and disappointed when we heard, when we were in London, that had happened. I wish to emphasise that the IMC and IICD reports have confirmed, contrary to the negative reports in some quarters, that a strategic decision to pursue politics via peaceful means has been taken by the IRA leadership. That such a decision was taken is not in question.

The IMC and IICD reports make a persuasive case for politics. Anyone who thinks the transition to politics is easy is naive. The process in which we are engaged is particularly demanding on people like my party colleagues, who have always pursued their political aims through politics and who have abhorred violence from any source. As a republican, I share their abhorrence of violence and their belief in peaceful politics. The transition to politics presents many challenges to the collective political leadership on these islands. The two sovereign Governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland need to reassert the primacy of politics after a long period of political deep-freeze. All of us are challenged with assuming our responsibilities and beginning to engage seriously with each other on the small number of outstanding issues which still require resolution. The transition I have mentioned challenges the IRA leadership to ensure that the absence of IRA paramilitary activity that has been identified by the IMC is sustained and that the outstanding concerns about criminality and intelligence-gathering are tackled and resolved.

We tend to underestimate the serious threat of the various loyalist paramilitary groups because we concentrate on the other side to a certain extent. The leaders of those groups are being challenged to follow the path that has clearly been taken by the IRA. The Governments have reiterated that they will respond positively to those who are making genuine efforts to achieve transformation within loyalism. As we move towards devolved Government, we are determined that the process will leave nobody behind. Loyalist paramilitaries must cease the shootings, assaults and other paramilitary activity, engage fully with the IICD, take the necessary steps to decommission their weapons and press ahead with the current transformation initiatives.

Each of us must meet the various challenges I have outlined if we are to succeed in delivering on the commitment we have made to the people of this island to restore the devolved institutions at the earliest possible date. We have come a long way in recent years on the basis of sustained political engagement to resolve political issues, combined with effective law enforcement to tackle paramilitary and criminal activity by loyalist and republican groups. As someone who was born and bred in the Border area and continues to live there, I am familiar with the physical sea change that has taken place in the region, particularly on the northern side of the Border, where many security towers have been removed. I have noticed that a general sense of ease now exists in the region to a much greater extent than in previous years. The difference is incredible — long may it last. The Governments will continue their efforts to ensure that such progress is sustained.

I issued a statement at the beginning of this year, saying that the Governments would embark on a concerted effort to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly and the institutions in 2006. I said that local devolved government was the clear will of the people of Northern Ireland and that the political parties and those of us in government had a duty to deliver on that. I reiterate that message today. It is clear that attention must focus on the restoration of the political institutions. As the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister, Mr. Blair, said after their meeting at Farmleigh last week, 2006 is the decisive year for the peace process. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. Peter Hain, and I will begin talks next Monday with the aim of setting out the arrangements and timetable for the restoration of the institutions as soon as possible. We recognise that we are setting an ambitious goal, but we are conscious of our responsibilities as Governments and we are fully prepared to exercise them.

The task of building confidence and restoring normal politics demands effort, support and a willingness to take risks by all parties. It demands that the commitment to pursue politics exclusively through peaceful and lawful means is fully adhered to and that all parties engage actively and collectively in efforts to restore the institutions needed to secure long-term peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland. We appreciate that it will be difficult to operate the Assembly, the Executive and the North-South bodies on anything other than a care and maintenance basis in the near future and we understand that people will not rush into an Executive. The next couple of months are critical when one considers the challenges I have mentioned, particularly those to be faced by the Provisional IRA as it comes to terms with the issues raised in the IMC report. The next few months are also important for the political parties as they will have to decide whether they are willing to engage with this process in a constructive manner.

Since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, significant progress has been made and continues to be made in Northern Ireland. While there have been positive aspects to that progress, such as unprecedented peace, prosperity and growth, some significant economic and social challenges remain. It is clear that the suspension of the devolved institutions is hampering the ability of Northern Ireland to tackle such challenges. There is no substitute for locally-elected politicians working in a partnership government for the benefit for the people they represent. A classic example is the way in which the Taoiseach led a delegation to India recently and included in it companies and business people from Northern Ireland. That is something Northern Ireland should be doing in its own right with its own elected politicians dictating for themselves and working with the South in that respect.

The simple fact is that Northern Ireland cannot afford complacency or prolonged stalemate. It cannot thrive, socially or economically in a political vacuum. We want to see positive politics and the restoration of the devolved institutions in 2006 and we will spare no effort to bring that about.

In 2005, despite what by any standards was a very bad start, we made real progress. The unprecedented commitment by the IRA last July to end its armed campaign and the confirmation by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning in September that the IRA had put all its weapons beyond use were welcome and historic, if overdue, developments. They changed the context within which the Governments had been working to restore confidence and trust in a political process which had been hampered by a series of events over a number of years. They gave us a basis on which we could re-engage with the parties to restore and fortify that trust and confidence and to rebuild political momentum.

We had a busy autumn and winter working with the parties. The Taoiseach, Tony Blair, Peter Hain and I met on several occasions to consider the way forward. Mr. Hain and I made ourselves jointly available for a series of stocktaking talks with parties on 14 and 24 November 2005 at Hillsborough. Those meetings complemented the many bilateral meetings with all of the parties which both Governments had in November and December.

During the course of those meetings, and through our regular contact with them, we have listened carefully to what the parties have said to us on the way forward. We recognise that there are differences of view as to how and when restoration of the institutions can be achieved. We also recognise that the climate of trust and confidence between some of the parties is not currently what we would all wish.

However, we are clear in our determination to build on the progress made in Northern Ireland over three long and difficult decades and particularly in the years since the Good Friday Agreement, to work with the parties to restore Government to the people of Northern Ireland. The current overall security situation on the ground is testimony to how far we have come in that time. As of last month, troop numbers are at their lowest level in 30 years and will go lower. Watch-towers and observation posts have been taken down in south Armagh, Derry and Belfast and more are to follow. In Forkhill and Newtownhamilton, military installations that have dominated the centre of the towns for years are being dismantled. The British navy gunboat in Carlingford Lough, which had been a source of much complaint for many years by my constituents and those in the general area, is also gone. This process of demilitarisation and normalisation is ongoing and scheduled to be completed by 1 August 2007. Speaking with Peter Hain and his officials yesterday they desire that to continue in an ever-increasing way.

The welcome fact is that the people of Northern Ireland are living in a much more benign and safer environment, less overshadowed by violence and by the threat of it, and the tangible outcome is that many communities are moving swiftly away from militarised abnormality towards peaceful normality. All in all, these are positive developments and we should never underestimate them.

There are other significant challenges ahead. Support for policing is critical to ensuring an inclusive democracy in Northern Ireland in which all sections of society feel secure. Furthermore, a normal society requires a normal police service, operating with the support of all political parties and with the active co-operation of the local community which it serves. In moving about in Northern Ireland I am adamant that the ordinary people, particularly in Nationalist areas, wish the policing issue to be dealt with once and for all. Enormous progress has been made in implementing the Patten reforms and there is genuinely, in our view, no obstacle to full endorsement and engagement with the PSNI. There is also a widespread demand on the ground in Nationalist areas for proper, effective, accountable policing. Given where I live I can see that in places such as south Down and south Armagh.

Therefore, for the benefit of the communities it represents, and for the benefit of the wider political process, it is time for Sinn Féin to endorse the new policing arrangements,——