Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

It has served many useful purposes since. There have been people, mostly outside these Houses, who from time to time expressed great fears about democracy being subverted, but I never had any doubts about the strength of Irish democracy or that Irish democracy, if challenged by violent forces, would win out, even with difficulty. As has been pointed out, the rejectionists from various sides and their paramilitary operations must be wound up. They got derisory support in the recent Northern elections.

What is so satisfying is that we hope we are about to have all the elements of the agreement working as they should. It is an holistic settlement that picks up the many initiatives going back 40 years, perhaps even longer. It has weaved them into a whole, and it is both a peace settlement and a political settlement. We hope to see it work out.

It is not the end of history. I hope it is the working of a new dynamic. One of my favourite quotations is from one of the architects of the Ostpolitik who stated that if one wants to change realities, one has to recognise them. I thoroughly agree. The establishment of a North-South parliamentary body is the appropriate answer to the request for representation and I also look to the reformation of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body.

We owe a great deal to parties that are no longer centre-stage, such as the SDLP, the UUP, the Alliance Party, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, the loyalist parties and our countless unsung heroes across this island in churches and communities. Many people have done their little bit to keep on the path of sanity.

Where we have got to today does not cancel the grief, loss and bereavement caused by unnecessary deaths and murders. One of the frustrating things repeated throughout history and across the world, even today, is that people can espy a sensible solution long before it is reached, unfortunately, or before casualties cease.

I will finish by referring to a comment by Senator Brian Hayes. Before doing so I join in tributes to the significant contribution that Senator Maurice Hayes has made for 40 or 50 years, and continues to make in many different roles.