Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It defies belief that this is continuing in 2009. It must be energetically tackled and confronted by political leaders and by the wider community. The Irish Government is more than willing to play its part, as we try to do in our work on a daily basis.

I am firmly of the view that over a decade on from the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland needs to move proactively to reach the goal of a shared future. People from all communities, and especially those who have been marginalised in the past, need to see hope and opportunity for their children. We all know that poverty and hopelessness provide a fertile ground for disaffection and alienation. At a time of economic crisis across the world, to which the North cannot be immune, we cannot allow old hatreds to fester and renew themselves.

The task of reconciliation and of ending sectarianism will not be easy. It will take time and effort, and it will be a long road, but it is vital for the future of everyone on this island. I know everyone in this House shares that goal.

I want to express my gratitude to Members for this opportunity to address the House on progress and recent developments in the peace process. While many challenges remain, we are living through a period of unprecedented co-operation and contacts between all of the parties within Northern Ireland and on these islands. We are finally seeing the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement come to fruition.

We continue to work closely with the British Government, with the strong support of President Obama and the United States Administration, to secure the peace and to build a better future. We will not forget the enormous suffering endured in this generation, in living memory, on this island. We recognise and applaud the huge steps, taken by people on all sides, to bring about peace and understanding. We do not ignore the serious challenges that remain. We can and we must ensure that future generations have a different, better, peaceful and common future.

In that respect, from my point of view as leader of this Government, the downturn, the current economic recession, which affects us all, reinforces our mutual dependence on each other. It reinforces the need for politics to be seen to work. It reinforces the need for those hard-pressed taxpayers' revenues that are being provided to Administrations now, the need to avoid duplication, to work with an open mind and an open heart and to be prepared to sit down, regardless of the past, and find ways in which we can develop better public services together in health, higher education, social welfare and a range of areas. We can assist each other and show the people that politics is the better alternative.

Too often in the past, once we settled on the structures and met the agreement in the letter, we forget about its implementation in the spirit. The spirit of the agreement is about partnership, forgetting about the past, putting a line under it and being prepared to work for future generations. The great genius of the Good Friday Agreement is that it has overturned the old historical analysis where people from different traditions sought an end destination which was mutually exclusive from the other. The great genius of the Good Friday Agreement is that it commits us to a common journey, regardless of the destination, that is about signifying our mutual interest in working together and seeing co-operation rather than conflict as the means by which we can resolve our problems. That is a central place for the primacy of politics to operate.

For those in a divided society who have seen the absence of politics, it behoves those of us who are part of that profession to make it work now for a people who for too long have been alienated from the institutions of law and order and a civilised society that is central to decent and full living.