Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis na Seanadóirí as ucht an chuiridh a chur siad romhaim agus toisc go bhfuil an díospóireacht seo ar siúl. Is ceist an-thábhachtach ar fad í agus admhaím go bhfuil tuairimí na Seanadóirí rí-thábhachtach ar fad. Gan amhras, beimid ag éisteacht leo agus ag déanamh scrúdú ar an méid atá ráite acu go dtí seo.

I welcome this opportunity to speak to the Seanad on the peace process in Northern Ireland and the agreement reached in Hillsborough on 5 February. As Senators will be aware, the agreement represented the culmination of many hours of intensive negotiations and engagement on all sides. It provides the basis for the future stability and success of the democratic institutions which we all have worked so hard to create and maintain.

When we most recently discussed developments in Northern Ireland in this House on 3 November last, I began by recalling that many of the breakdowns and delays and the loss of momentum in the peace process in the last decade had been caused by a failure to fully implement the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The St. Andrews Agreement and now the Hillsborough agreement are essentially further implementation agreements building on the framework and vision contained in the Good Friday Agreement. I use this opportunity to call on all of the parties in Northern Ireland to seize the opportunity to break the cycle of stop-start implementation of these agreements. I am confident that the public consultation process that the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have just launched will demonstrate that the vast majority of people in the North want their political leaders to take forward with confidence and determination this latest agreement and implement it in full and on time. If I can add to the phrase used by the Northern Ireland Minister for Finance and Personnel, Mr. Sammy Wilson, MP, MLA, this needs to be a made and implemented in Ulster deal. The Taoiseach was right when he stated in Hillsborough that what was needed was a return to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. I also agree with the Rt. Hon. Rev. Ian Paisley, MP, MLA, who wrote in the Belfast Newsletter last week: "What is important now is that the deal is enacted ... If the deal is worthy, own it, don't ambush it".

The motion acknowledges the Government's role in brokering the agreement. I want to take a few moments to explain what the role of the Government and that of the two Governments were in helping to facilitate the Hillsborough agreement. It was clear from early September last year that the Northern Ireland parties, in particular, the DUP and Sinn Féin, were having increasing difficulty in agreeing how to move ahead with the devolution of policing and justice powers which was long overdue. This was caused partly by and at the same time contributed to a wider breakdown in the good functioning of the Northern Ireland Executive. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt. Hon. Shaun Woodward, MP, and I began to meet more regularly throughout the autumn as the two Governments intensified their efforts to encourage and assist the parties to resolve, between them, outstanding issues that would enable the devolution of policing and justice to proceed and in the process restore the working relationships at the heart of the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive. The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minster, Mr. Brown, MP, were also in frequent contact throughout this period and the two Governments were in regular contact with the main parties.

Widespread public awareness of the impending breakdown only emerged in December, but by then the two Governments had further intensified their efforts to assist the parties, with a meeting between the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister on 17 December, at which they set out clearly the firm view of the two Governments that a reasonable agreement on the early devolution of policing and justice powers and related outstanding issues from St. Andrew's was achievable. It was clear to the two Governments at that point that there was only a number of weeks at the most for the parties to come to an agreement or else the institutions would be under threat of collapse. The aim of the two Governments throughout this phase was to encourage and assist the parties to reach agreement, but also to be prepared to intervene if the point was reached where it was clear that the parties no longer had the capacity to resolve their differences on their own. When the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister, accompanied by me and the Secretary of State, met in Downing Street on the morning of 25 January, we had anticipated that the moment to intervene had arrived and we proceeded to Hillsborough to convene all-party talks. Our role was not to impose or dictate solutions but to facilitate and encourage the parties to reach agreement. The point of departure for us was the need to continue to deliver full implementation of the Good Friday and St Andrew's Agreements.

In the first three intensive days the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister worked with the parties to begin to restore trust between them, to focus on the reasonable basis that the Governments knew was in place for an agreement on the way forward and to encourage the parties to re-engage directly with each other on the core issues. Progress was slow in this first phase, but it provided the basis for the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister to release their statement on the afternoon of 27 January, setting out what they believed to be a fair and reasonable basis for agreement and setting a deadline of Friday, 29 January, for the parties to reach agreement or the two Governments would publish their own proposals.

The second phase of the talks, led by me and the Secretary of State, built on the progress that had been made. We focused on facilitating the parties to re-establish trust and increase their confidence that both sides had the political will to do the deal which the two Governments believed was achievable and, on that basis, to increasingly take forward the serious discussions directly with each other. Once we were confident serious progress was being made, the two Governments deferred publication of their proposals to allow the parties the time and space to take forward their negotiations. What I might call the third phase was very much about Sinn Féin and the DUP negotiating and concluding the text that was published with the full support and encouragement of the two Governments at Hillsborough on 5 February.

It is important to realise that the political context for the recent talks was very different from any that had gone before. While these talks were convened and facilitated by the two Governments, in the end they were primarily conducted between the parties in Northern Ireland because, unlike on previous occasions, we have had fully functioning democratic institutions throughout the recent period of political turbulence. The members of the Northern Ireland Executive have now held office for longer than any of their predecessors since Good Friday 1998.

While the two Governments have an essential role in upholding the agreements and a continuing role in supporting the institutions and the parties as they move forward, it is the parties which had to come to an agreement on this occasion. Both the DUP and Sinn Féin attached significant importance to the fact that it was their deal, done in the end between the two main parties. This was how it had to be. The political reality, determined by the electorate at the last Northern Ireland Assembly elections, is that the DUP and Sinn Féin are the leading parties. Based on the democratic judgment of the electorate, they provide the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister and, between them, can command cross-community support in the Northern Ireland Assembly. However, both the First Minister, the Rt. Hon. Peter Robinson, MP, MLA, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr. Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, acknowledged that it was important that there was broad support for the deal, in particular, from the other political parties in the Assembly. In the final plenary, co-chaired by the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach on 5 February, they made clear their willingness to discuss all elements of the deal with the other parties. With the views articulated by Senators tonight, I urge them to continue to work more closely with the other parties in the future. In that regard, I welcome the proposals for improving the workings of the Northern Ireland Executive and greater discussion with the other parties which are part of the agreement. I very much welcome the decision by Sir Reg Empey, MLA, and Ms Margaret Ritchie, MLA, to chair the working group provided for in the Hillsborough agreement to review the functioning of the Northern Ireland Executive and come up with proposals for improvements. I congratulate all of the parties around the table which contributed to the positive outcome reached on 5 February. The leadership displayed by the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister and their respective party colleagues was instrumental in achieving the agreement reached.

It still takes considerable political will and leadership to reach out beyond the comfort zones on either side to occupy the shared space where progress and accommodation are to be found. That political will and leadership re-emerged during the long hours we all spent in Hillsborough. I pay tribute and give full credit to the Sinn Féin and DUP negotiating teams for this achievement. The DUP and Sinn Féin occupy a joint office which is at the heart of devolved government in the North; thus their capacity to engage with each other and reach accommodation is crucial to the stability of the institutions. The fact that they, facilitated by the two Governments, have been able to conclude this comprehensive agreement around a number of contentious and sensitive issues is a major step forward.

I also acknowledge the wisdom of and leadership shown by all of the other party leaders - Sir Reg Empey, MLA; Mr. Mark Durkan, MP, MLA; Mr. David Ford, MLA, and Ms Dawn Purvis, MLA - and their teams in the part that they played. It is very important that all of the Northern Ireland Assembly parties get behind this deal, contribute to its delivery and make the devolved institutions work for all of the people they represent.

I take the opportunity to show my special appreciation to the former SDLP leader, Mr. Mark Durkan, for all that he has done to help build peace, prosperity and reconciliation.