Shane Ross (Independent)

One of the remarkable facts about this peace process is not that it was so slow, but that it was so fast. It is only 12 years since it started with the first ceasefire. To have come so far so quickly is an extraordinary tribute to people. As Senator Hayes said, we have taken two steps forward and one step back. We have had setbacks at every stage. However, in approximately 12 years, we have moved from a stage where people were cutting each other's throats to a stage where people are shaking each other's hands. That is an enormous tribute to people.

It is difficult to select people because so many have done so much. Senator Mansergh did a huge amount in bringing together the parties and in talking to people to whom it was dangerous to talk. People on all sides did that. In particular, I think of those on all sides who stood against violence when it was difficult to do so and when the easy option was to keep quiet. I think of Gerry Fitt and Seamus Mallon and of the McGimpseys and David Trimble on the other side, those who lost their political careers because they had the courage to stand up for what they believed in rather than what was popular and those who did not take the extreme line when it was popular and expedient to do so and who are now political corpses. We must thank those people for bringing us to this point.

I was very much taken by what Senator Quinn said which was mature and sensible. This is only the beginning and there are real problems ahead. However, I take great cheer from the type of problems ahead because they appear to be the problems of the economy and of the Protestant working classes, to which Senator Maurice Hayes referred, who believe they have been neglected. If they are the problems we must attack, at least they are new problems and are not sectarian, denominational ones. They are social problems and problems of class and prosperity. I hope we, in this part of Ireland, play our part in resolving the economic difficulties they face.

I was encouraged by the fact Dr. Paisley, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Unionists united in kicking Peter Hain out of Stormont. I thought it was absolutely wonderful that they got together and said they wanted to take it over themselves, that they did not want Mr. Hain around anymore, that, symbolically, they wanted to show they were in charge and were interested in tackling the problems and that the old days were over. It is a day of great hope and I congratulate everybody involved.