Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Is iontach agus maith an rud é go raibh an tAire Gnóthaí Eachtracha anseo agus go labhair sé go cuimsitheach agus go cruinn faoin todhchaí mar a thuigeann an Rialtas é. I always make the point in debates on this topic that I first sat in this House from 1981 to 1993, until I had an unfortunate misunderstanding with the electorate. Lest any other Member says it first, perhaps they saw through me for a while.

However, it was a terrible time, even if one leaves out the horrors of the economic situation. In this House we spoke almost every week to register some horror or other, perpetrated by someone or other, in the name of one or other of the allegedly conflicting traditions on this island. Members did so with a vocabulary that seemed increasingly less capable of being useful. Those who carried out such acts in the name of the values and political system in which I believe consequently probably merited some stronger disassociation then those who did so in the name of the equally honourable tradition of Ulster Unionism. That tradition has much within it pertaining to concepts such as freedom of religion. It was founded at a time when Roman Catholicism may not have had the best credentials on the same issue.

It was a terrible time and I remember the former Senator, John Robb, being close to tears a number of times. When one went to bed, one did not know what horror would await when turning on the radio the next morning. By comparison, peace is a monotonous process. I mean that not in a negative sense, but in the sense that it is a monotone. It is something that is present and which one takes for granted extremely quickly. This is not the case as far as the Governments are concerned. The Government does a fine job in respect of Northern Ireland and no Opposition Members wish to take issue with it in any major way. During one phase of the talks, I had some reservations about its focus upon the DUP and Sinn Féin, and voiced them at the time. However, we have been well represented by successive Governments, including the present one. The same can be said of the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and his predecessor. They have looked after the interests of both the State and of reconciliation on this island to a degree with which we can all be comfortable.

That said, we are required to reflect on matters as they stand today. I have read the International Monitoring Commission report and am aware of what are probably only differences in detail between the commission and General de Chastelain. It is a pity that what I believe to be a red herring about a couple of weapons, which may or may not have been retained for personal protection, was not dealt with in some fashion other than in the context of a formal report from a body set up by the two Governments. I believe that whatever agency supplied such information to the International Monitoring Commission would have been better advised to attempt to draw the attention of General de Chastelain and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning to the anomaly, if it exists, and invite it to clarify the matter. While I hesitate to impute any negative motives to whatever source from which it came, it is not helpful and it is a pity that it was not dealt with differently. I do not believe that its significance should be overstated. While it is not of great significance, it will become an issue which can be used, which is a pity.

Like many others, I am somewhat perturbed by the suggestions of intelligence gathering. I have asked more than once, both in the House and at British-Irish Interparliamentary Body meetings, about the current function of the IRA. While I do not wish to suggest that it should formally make some announcement to the effect that it is winding up, I would like someone from Sinn Féin to explain its function. If its function is to be covert — I do not mean illegal — gathering of information about political opponents, I am not terribly keen on that and am unsure whether it is a model for political progress.

I am aware of a member of Fianna Fáil whose name appeared in the newspapers recently. It is difficult to know why, in modern Ireland, this was so, because he was outed as being gay. Apparently, everyone who knew him and his family long knew this, as did those who voted for him. He alleged that members of Sinn Féin were involved in this campaign. Gathering information that might be embarrassing and, therefore, politically useful to them, is not the way to win the trust of those whose trust they must win. Sometimes, Sinn Féin, despite its significant progress and major contribution to the peace process, fails to remember that trust cannot be legislated into existence. When the party makes pronouncements to the world that it is up to the British and Irish Governments to make the Agreement work, it is divorced from the reality. Nothing can be made to work if people do not want to make it work. Similarly, it will only work if people are prepared to trust a party because of its record or the way it has changed or a context has been created in which they are prepared to take the risk to do so. In each case, the free choice of the other half of the trusting relationship must be sorted out and people cannot be forced to make such a choice. Life can be made difficult for them but they can only be persuaded and not forced to do so. For example, as was highlighted by the recent election in Palestine, the people of that country will not be forced to trust Israel by taking away their funding. That is self-evident. I appeal again to Sinn Féin members to realise that. Trust cannot be developed through their inner perspective but rather through the way the party is seen by others, justifiably or not, and that is a matter for themselves. Trust must be won.

I am more than a little perturbed by the evidence of criminal activity and the recent activities of the CAB and the Assets Recovery Agency, which are correct. However, when the hotel in which I stay is under suspicion, I am more than a little perturbed.