Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Each Minister decided issues within that Department without ultimate recourse to the Cabinet. That is not a functioning democracy. If we are to make progress in the talks, this issue must be revisited. I know it will be difficult but it is important that Ministers serving around the Cabinet table have a sense of collective belonging.

Last Saturday, I was privileged to take up the invitation of the Ulster Unionist Party to address a party gathering in the Le Mons Hotel, which is just outside Belfast, as the Minister knows. Senator Maurice Hayes knows more than I, as I was only eight years of age when it happened, that the Le Mons was the scene of one of the North's worst atrocities. By way of a firebomb, 12 innocent civilians were murdered by the IRA in 1978.

From my discussion with the gathering, people from outside Northern Ireland — London, England, Scotland and Wales — sometimes have an inability to understand the level of bitterness still there concerning the Troubles. Our history is that we are 80 years from a violent, bloody and awful Civil War that wrecked homes and families and destroyed the early momentum of the foundation of this State. It has taken us 60 years, as it were, to get over that Civil War. We should not underestimate existing feelings in Northern Ireland on the Troubles and the enduring bitterness which is the result of that campaign.

With other colleagues, I recently attended the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body meeting in Edinburgh and was struck by a presentation made by Professor Paul Bew. He stated that, whatever one could say about the lack of progress in the North, one of the enduring parts of progress seen in recent years has been the new attitude of the Unionist community to the Republic and vice versa. He stated that it should not be underestimated. While I come from another political party, the person responsible for that change more than anyone else is the Taoiseach. He has no political or historical baggage in his dealings with Northern Ireland. I sincerely believe that he should take credit for the changed attitudes of the majority of the Unionist community and the political establishment of the Republic of Ireland. I want to recognise his work.

From my discussions of late with the DUP and the Official Unionist Party, it is also the case that the North-South matter is not so much an issue as an irritant. They did not want it in the talks. The Council of Ireland brought down the Sunningdale Agreement. In the North, there is no great hostility towards the question of North-South arrangements, the joint ministerial council or the initiatives referred to by the Minister in his speech. There has been a sea change in attitude, largely as a result of the Taoiseach's handling of this issue.

I recently had a chance to visit Belfast with other colleagues as part of the Co-operation Ireland initiative. I wish to put on record my thanks for the many small steps taking place in the North by groups such as Co-operation Ireland and others that are trying to bring about reconciliation between the communities. I will end on a positive note, in that one of the best news stories we have recently heard is of the possibility that the British monarch and Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, may shortly make the first state visit to this State since before our independence. I hope it happens, irrespective of whether we have an agreement in Northern Ireland, as it will show the new dispensation and relationship between Britain and Ireland, a relationship built on mutual trust and friendship that has matured so much since the early 1970s. That visit will be the most public manifestation yet that the relationship between our islands has changed.