Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Míle buíochas gach duine. Thar cheann Seanaid Éireann, is mór agam fáilte ó chroí a chur roimh an iar-Thaoiseach, Parthalán Ó hEachthairn. Cuirim fáilte roimhe ar ais go dtí an Teach seo. On behalf of Seanad Éireann, it gives me great pleasure to extend a céad míle fáilte to our former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, or rather to welcome him back. Níl aon ghá a insint don Teach cé hé an tUasal Ó hEachthairn. Tá a phortráid á taispeáint in aice láimhe i nGailearaí na Taoisigh. Is é an tUasal Ó hEachthairn an Taoiseach ag a raibh an dara tréimhse oifige is faide mar Thaoiseach aige riamh ó bhunú an Stáit.

Mr. Ahern needs no introduction to us this afternoon in this House. His portrait hangs nearby in the gallery of former taoisigh. He was the second longest serving Taoiseach in the history of our State and we thank him for being with us and addressing Seanad Éireann. We are here to talk about his significant role in the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago. The vote on the agreement was celebrated yesterday, and today is the closest sitting date to that significant milestone anniversary. The referendum 25 years ago yesterday was an historic referendum on our island, which saw an overwhelming majority of the Irish people, North and South of our Border, vote in favour of the Good Friday Agreement. This overwhelming democratic endorsement of an agreement demonstrated that people North and South, irrespective of creed, background, religion or political view, would not accept the violence of the past. It is appropriate that today in this House, the Upper House of the Oireachtas, we mark that overwhelming democratic support for the Good Friday Agreement in twin referendums. This was the first time since 1918 that the whole of Ireland voted together or, as I like to say, le chéile.The people voted decisively in favour, with majorities of 71% and 94% for the agreement.

This overwhelming democratic endorsement was the beginning of the end of three decades of conflict. Many of us are old enough to remember waking up to the news, reading the stories, knowing people affected and sharing the pain and anguish of loss. There was nothing inevitable about the Good Friday Agreement. For years before it, attempts had been made to end the violence, broker peace and forge a new way ahead. None had succeeded. It took leadership to achieve the agreement. I thank Mr. Ahern today for the role he played, along with other key figures across all political parties. I ask that we all remember those brave patriots who tried and fought so valiantly to bring peace to Ireland. We think today of the Currie family and the huge commitment Senator Currie's late father gave. We thank the Senator for her family's sacrifice as we remember her father and many others today. All of those men and women wanted to win peace and end conflict.

Mr. Ahern's leadership was strong, not in the sense of coercing people or imposing a view or mindset on them, but rather in compromise, creativity and courage. There were many setbacks and difficulties along the way to the Good Friday Agreement. There must have been many moments when he and others thought it would be easier to walk away, but people did not do so. Political leadership requires responsibility. The architects of the Good Friday Agreement were imbued with that sense and spirit of responsibility, but also with the sense of the time they were in and they duty they had. Mr. Ahern never gave in to despair and he dared to hope. Today, thanks to that hope, an entire generation can live, and has lived, free from the shadow of violence. Over the past few weeks, the country has rightly celebrated and commemorated this anniversary, from the Good Friday Agreement seminar yesterday in University College Cork, UCC, to the big event in Queen's University Belfast and all points in between. Members of the Government, all political leaders and all Members of the Oireachtas have participated in conferences. We think in particular of the one in Queen's University.

Of course, we are all mindful that we are not there yet and the process is not finished. As a serving politician, it is of profound regret to me that the Northern Ireland political institutions are not doing the vital work they were tasked with under the Good Friday Agreement. We all want to see Northern Ireland flourish. I ask all involved to strive to get the assembly and executive back up and running as soon as possible. We also need a framework for dealing with the legacy of the past in order to work towards genuine reconciliation. Putting in place an agreed framework on dealing with the legacy of the past has been, and will be, one of the most challenging aspects of the peace process, yet without an agreed framework for dealing with the past, genuine reconciliation cannot be completed.

Arising from the Good Friday Agreement and 25 years of peace and the progress it has brought, people are rightly turning their attention to the future and what it holds for Northern Ireland and its people. Some people will be very happy to remain part of the United Kingdom. That is their right. Others will aspire to a referendum on Irish unity. That, too, is their right. As Professor Brendan O'Leary stated yesterday in UCC, the agreement is partly about agreeing to disagree. This occasion, 25 years on from the agreement, gives us a chance not only to celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past but to learn from them. The agreement was only possible through leadership, vision and capacity for compromise, but it also needed political risk-taking. Mr. Ahern took that risk. Without the courage of the leaders from across the political traditions on these islands, we would not have a peace process to celebrate today.

As I said earlier, it is important that we keep to the forefront of our minds those men and women who worked to secure peace. Today is Martin McGuinness's birthday. We remember him. We remember the many families who have lost loved ones, including friends of mine who moved from the North to the South for a better type of life, in their minds, and sharing the same ambitions and hopes we all do.I thank the Members of Seanad Éireann for agreeing to my request to have Mr. Ahern address the House. It is only right that we celebrate this remarkable achievement and reflect on how, since 1998, the spirit of vision and leadership has brought change. I thank Senator McDowell for his role in successive Governments and his courage. Ar an ábhar sin, is mór agam cuireadh a thabhairt don Uasal Parthalán Ó hEachthairn Seanad Éireann a aitheasc. On that note, it gives me great pleasure to invite Mr. Bertie Ahern to address Seanad Éireann.

Mr. Bertie Ahern:

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I thank you sincerely for the invitation. It is always an honour to come to the Seanad, address it and see all the Senators here.

In the human journey, anniversaries play a significant role. They serve as markers of memory, calling to mind an event, moment, person or group of people of significance to us personally or as a community. The exercise of recall serves many purposes – remembering, memorialising, honouring and reflecting – and it can also be a catalyst for renewal to resolve or redouble efforts associated with the person or event being recalled. Landmark anniversaries like decades or centenaries have even further significance in the outworking of memory. Twenty-fifth anniversaries undoubtedly sit in that category of significance. Whether we are talking about the life of a person, a marriage or an organisation, or even a country, reaching the quarter-century mark has an impact of special importance to us. Making it to 25 years carries a certain status. It speaks of viability, endurance, resilience, staying power and, yes, achievement. Of course, no human endeavour is perfect but arriving at the milestone of a score and five years deserves to be acknowledged and saluted.

Senators can see where I am going with this. Those of them who follow these things have probably been noting that a fair degree of column inches and screen time - even, dare I say it, podcast hours - have been devoted to marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Of course, I admit straight away to some bias in the matter but I do not believe we have overdone it. It is right and proper that we should use the spring and summer of 2023 to focus on marking the seminal moment in Anglo-Irish history of 25 years ago. I say that for all the reasons I have just outlined as to why 25th anniversaries are significant in the human journey. I have already set out the caveat that no human venture is perfect but, allowing for that, the 25th anniversary of the agreement certainly ticks many of the boxes I have listed. The agreement has shown endurance, resilience and staying power, and, yes, it has shown achievement. For starters, it has delivered on its primary purpose: to stop the killing and achieve a stable peace. It is easy with the passage of time to forget how utterly awful and heartbreaking the previous generation had been on our island, particularly Northern Ireland. There were over 3,700 deaths and tens of thousands were injured, and the entire society of the island was blighted and held back by the darkness that enveloped it. To give just one statistic of context that came up in the numerous debates we had on the stations across the water, the vast majority of the deaths were in Northern Ireland. In per capitaterms, that level of death in Great Britain would equate to over 130,000 killings. It was not just a matter of the savagery of the scale of the death, injury and destruction; it was also a matter of the sense of hopelessness it engendered, the sense that the seemingly endless cycle could never be broken and that we were all destined and predestined to accept our grim fate.

Somehow, in some way, through a combination of determination and resolve on the part of many, and, frankly, a modicum of good fortune, we found the means in the weeks and days of the spring of 1998 to bring the vicious cycle to an end, not totally but very substantially, and thereby set in train a new era of peace and stability in Northern Ireland and the relations between the North and South and between Ireland and Britain that we continue to enjoy to this day. As the autumn unfolded, what I would call an historic confluence of people and factors meant there was a choice – if not the choice of a lifetime, certainly that of a generation – to break the vicious cycle of violence and death I have mentioned.In no particular order, those people and factors included: David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, UUP; John Hume and Seamus Mallon of the Social and Democratic Labour Party, SDLP, and all those other people in that party as well, like Senator Currie's dad, Austin Currie, who did so much work; Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin; and, from the other parties, John Alderdice, Monica McWilliams, David Ervine and Gary McMichael, among others. I also give a shout out to the Ministers supporting Tony Blair and myself, the legendary Mo Mowlam, Paul Murphy and, later, Peter Mandelson on the British side, and my team of the great David Andrews, John O'Donoghue, Liz O'Donnell and the then Attorney General, David Byrne. Further down the road of implementation, now Senator Michael McDowell sat with me through many fairly heated debates, of which I am sure information released under the 20-year or 40-year rule will eventually give the details, as well as Brian Cowen. The danger in listing people, of course, is the risk of leaving out important figures. There were certainly others who played a noble role, so I mention them all. In particular, I mention the dedicated officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Justice and the Taoiseach, who were excellent throughout the years of the discussions.

In describing the historic confluence, I spoke of people and factors. I just outlined some of the people involved, so what, then, were the factors? A crucial one was the passage of time itself. The 30 years or so of conflict led to a kind of fatigue and exhaustion. There were many participants in the conflict but none of them had achieved what would be called the upper hand. The paramilitaries had waged a savage campaign that had cost the lives of thousands of people, but they had not prevailed in their stated goals. By the same token, however, the British and Irish states had applied their fullest resources in tackling the subversive activities of the paramilitaries, but this security and justice response had not brought peace.

By the early to mid-1990s, a kind of uneasy stalemate had taken hold. It felt like a stalemate that was not going to be broken by military or security means. All this had, in turn, led to a gradual evolution of the policies of the two governments in addressing the conflict. For almost 25 years, the settled view of both governments, individually and collectively, was that there could be no truck with those waging or supporting violence and armed struggle. Political parties supporting the armed groups were excluded from engagement by the governments. The focus of both was entirely on the constitutional parties.

In truth, of course, secret outreaches to the paramilitary worlds were undertaken over the years by many governments, Irish and British. Looking back, I fully support the fact that such efforts were made, including on the part of my two immediate predecessors as leaders of Fianna Fáil, Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds. It was Albert Reynolds who was to give that dial its most dramatic twist when he became Taoiseach in early 1992. He immediately made it clear that peace in Northern Ireland was his number one priority. Like my situation some years later with Tony Blair, he enjoyed a good relationship with his counterpart, John Major. They both agreed to explore what they could do together.

The Downing Street Declaration they signed jointly in December 1993 proved the decisive stepping stone towards the peace they both sought. It set out in clear terms the basis for a comprehensive process of negotiations and the principles that would need to be enshrined in the agreement. Critically, it opened the way for parties associated with armed groups to participate in the negotiations, but with one fundamental proviso: the groups had to end their campaigns of violence and commit to peace and democracy. In the summer of 1994, this led to the IRA ceasefire, which was followed in October of that year by a similar move by the loyalist paramilitaries. This was a historic turning point, without question, for which Albert Reynolds and, indeed, John Major, deserve great credit.

This was the spirit in which Tony Blair and I kicked off the process of inclusive talks in Belfast in September 1997. Again, it bears repeating that we were not starting from scratch but rather building on the foundations laid by our immediate predecessors, John Major, John Bruton and Albert Reynolds. A formal talks process had been under way since the summer of 1996, chaired by George Mitchell, but representatives of Sinn Féin were not at the table and, of course, the IRA ceasefire had broken down in February 1996. Thankfully, that ceasefire was restored after the change of government and the discussions we had had with Sinn Féin. To their credit, the loyalist paramilitaries maintained their ceasefires throughout. By the autumn of 1997, then, Tony Blair and I were able to work with George Mitchell in developing arrangements for the inclusion of Sinn Féin and the loyalist Ulster Democratic Party, UDP, and Progressive Unionist Party, PUP, in the talks.

This, of course, proved easier said than done. After some difficult conversations, the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, and the UK Unionist Party, UKUP, withdrew from the talks on the arrival of Sinn Féin. To his credit, though, David Trimble and the UUP remained, supported by the UDP and the PUP. I will say a word initially about the nature of the talks process itself. I would sum it up by saying that it was inclusive in terms of the parties around the table and comprehensive in terms of the issues on the table. By that, I mean that for the first time ever since the conflict began in the late 1960s, a negotiating process was taking place that incorporated the majority of the main players, including those connected to the combatants, and with all of the key topics requiring addressing on the table. That meant that if it was successful, the process had the best chance possible of being sustainable and enduring.

Around the table, there were two Governments and eight parties: UUP, SDLP, Sinn Féin, Alliance Party, UDP, PUP, Women’s Coalition and the Labour Coalition. In other words, there were ten delegations in all. When I say “delegations”, I mean big delegations. You have heard the phrase “It takes a village.” The talks process at times looked more like a mid-sized town. While that meant, at times, crowded corridors or rooms, in fairness, looking back on it, it also helped heighten the chances of whatever was agreed actually sticking.

In truth, the early months of this new phase of the talks through the autumn of 1997 and into early 1998 were not auspicious. The atmosphere was tense, suspicions were high and progress, if any, was painfully slow. George Mitchell’s patience was certainly being tried to the full. That Christmas was particularly bad. Billy Wright, the leader of the LVF, was killed in the Maze Prison and tension in Northern Ireland soared again. Delegates returned to the talks after Christmas even more down-beat than before they left.

Tony Blair and I kept going. We knew that the process was still the best chance for peace and in January we doubled our efforts. That month, we agreed between us what we called the Propositions on Heads of Agreement – essentially, the bare bones of what an agreement would look like and its key elements. That, in fact, became the agenda for the remainder of the talks and the task now, in effect, being to put flesh on those bones.

Now to the end game. It was kicked off, in fact, by a surprise development. Around 20 March, George Mitchell called a plenary meeting of the talks to announce that he was setting a deadline for the talks at 9 April, just a few weeks ahead. That certainly served to concentrate minds. From that moment on, there was a noticeable intensification of the talks. Business was being done but success still a long way off and major difficulties remained.

I will say a brief word about the shape of what was emerging based on the talks so far as the heads of agreement finalised in January was concerned. It was accepted that the following elements would have to be included and agreed. First was a section on constitutional issues, which would be the foundation platform for the entire agreement. Then, a section on institutions covering the three strands, that is, the three sets of relationships at the heart of the conflict: strand 1 dealing with relations within Northern Ireland; strand 2, between North and South on the island; and strand 3, between Britain and Ireland. The next section was material on rights and safeguards, highly important that the new dispensation we were seeking to build was to be a fair and equitable place for all. Then there was policing and justice, two crucial building blocks of any new agreement. The second last was tackling a range of issues, which would be summed up as things that have to do with the ending of the conflict, such as dealing with the arms question, prisoners and demilitarisation of society. Finally, there was the methodology for securing the endorsement of the people, North and South, for whatever was agreed in the talks, the result of which we celebrate today.

That all sounds very logical and orderly 25 years on. I can assure you that fleshing out the detail was anything but. The final week heading into George’s deadline of Thursday, 9 April dawned with many of the key issues still up in the air. The drafting process had been in overdrive since George’s announced deadline. That was mostly being conducted by officials of the two Governments in consultation with the parties and of course with George Mitchell keeping a close watching brief. It would be his task and that of his team to pull everything formally together. He told us that his intention was to circulate a first draft of a possible agreement ideally before the weekend of 4 or 5 April, but that did not prove possible; we just were not ready. Tony Blair and I were in constant contact. We were in London that week and over the weekend continued to be in contact. By Monday, we were able to get George enough material for him to circulate the first draft, which became known in the parlance as Mitchell 1.

It was then that all hell broke loose. Mitchell 1 had material on all of the ingredients I mentioned above and David Trimble and his colleagues were particularly taken aback by what the draft said in one of those, namely, the proposed strand 2 North-South arrangements. To be fair, they were at what I would call the maximum end of ambition from our perspective.A large number of areas were included and it was proposed that these be taken forward on a North-South basis. Mr. Trimble and his team were having none of it. Deputy leader of the UUP, John Taylor, summed up his party's attitude in the immortal phrase that he would not touch the draft with a 40 ft barge pole. Mr. Mitchell's deadline week was starting swimmingly.

I have spoken publicly a number of times about a phone call I got from Paddy Teahon, Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, as I left the church following my mother's removal. I took the call and Mr. Teahon, a straight-talking Kerryman, was of the view that if we did not see our way to scaling back very considerably the level of ambition on the North-South dimension, I did not need to bother coming up. It was a tough moment. I spent an hour and a half talking to both Mr. Teahon and Mr. Mitchell about how we could get out of this fix. I knew that there were no no-risk options open to me but I came to the view that, in order to save the talks and keep the possibility of agreement alive, I needed to move decisively in significantly scaling back the scope of strand 2. Very early the next morning, I travelled to Hillsborough where I met with Tony Blair and told him what I intended to do. He appreciated the move the Irish Government was going to make and agreed that we would then work with David Trimble, the SDLP and Sinn Féin to get agreement on our side's position and reassess where we stood. I then travelled back to Dublin for the funeral, returning later in the day to give the remaining period of talks my total attention.

Tony Blair and I were back in Castle Buildings and it was clear that we would not be leaving again until we had either agreement or a complete breakdown. The night of Wednesday, 8 April, was spent doing a major refashioning of a number of elements of the agreement, particularly the North-South element. Thursday, 9 April, dawned and we were all conscious that this was Mr. Mitchell's deadline. I have a feeling we were trying to avoid eye contact with him because we knew there was still a mountain of work to do but at least there was the first glimmer of momentum returning to the process.

By Thursday night, we had the shape of the proposed new North-South proposition. In essence, we agreed that there would be a formal ministerial institution. David Trimble had preferred that everything be kept on an ad hocbasis but, in the end, accepted that there would be a North-South Ministerial Council that would be the formal channel for cross-Border co-operation between the new Northern Ireland Administration and the Irish Government. It was also agreed that the council would have competence in at least 12 areas of formal co-operation and that six of those areas would be taken forward by new implementation bodies operating on an all-island or cross-Border basis with the six others being implemented by means of existing bodies. The big compromise on my side was conceding that the identity, nature and scale of the areas of co-operation and the cross-Border bodies associated with them would be left to a further process of negotiation down the road, to be completed by 31 October.

That unquestionably represented a big scaling back on my part and on the part of the nationalist parties with regard to the level of ambition that was going to emerge out of the agreement. However, I felt we were doing the fundamental thing that I believe is necessary in any negotiations, which is to come to an arrangement that takes account of the reality and the perspective of the other side and seeks the balanced space in the middle. For his part, David Trimble appreciated the scale of the compromise. Poignantly, before he died last year, he told me that it was a big part of the reason, over the following 48 hours, when things were extraordinarily difficult for him within his own party rooms, he held out against those opposed to the deal and eventually gave his assent. Although we were over one hump, there were several more to go.

Before we come to those, I will briefly mention two other key areas where agreement was reached before Good Friday dawned. One was the arrangements inside strand 1, which related to relationships within Northern Ireland, that is, the effective deal done in a long meeting between the SDLP and the UUP on Thursday night, stretching into the early hours of Friday morning. As the two largest parties in their respective communities, the heavy lifting in getting agreement on the arrangements as to how power was to be shared within Northern Ireland fell to them. Of course, these arrangements were those two key words, power sharing. A system was going to be required at both legislative and executive level that had the assent and consent of both communities. In effect, that meant agreeing to share power. In the course of a few intense hours, tremendous progress was made and, by the end of the meeting at approximately 1.30 a.m. on the morning of Good Friday, agreement was reached between them on the shape of strand 1, which related to the institutions.There would be a legislative assembly of 108 members, with executive authority to be discharged by a first and deputy first minister and up to ten ministers with departmental responsibilities. Safeguards were built in regarding how both institutions would work on a cross-community basis. It was an historic moment. I still remember the vivid excitement on the faces of John Hume and Seamus Mallon when they came into our delegation room to tell us the news. One further huge piece of the jigsaw had fallen into place.

The other key piece of the puzzle was already agreed by this point; it was the basket called "constitutional issues". I want to spend a few minutes on that now because it is critically important to everybody on this island. In many ways, this section of the agreement was always going to be the cornerstone - its foundation stone. Without a shared understanding of the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, because this, in essence, was what we were talking about, there would be no overall agreement. Again on this matter, we were building on a lot of important work that had been undertaken already in previous documents, in particular, the Downing Street Declaration of December 1993 and the Framework Document of February 1995. That set out the key challenges involved and the principles that would need to underlie their resolution. The Framework Document had useful language in terms of summing up the prevailing situation and what the requirement of the new agreement would be in this regard. In other words, Northern Ireland was a contested space in terms of the allegiance and identity of its people. At the heart of the contestation were two fundamentally different and opposing political philosophies, namely, unionism and nationalism. In unionist doctrine, Northern Ireland was as British as Finchley or Yorkshire, and in the nationalist credo, Northern Ireland was as Irish as the Cliffs of Moher, and never the twain shall meet. History had shown that both sides were prepared to take to the gun to press home their case. That had happened in the decade or so leading to independence between 1912 and 1923 and again 50 years or so later.

A way had to be found to break that cycle and, as the Framework Document called for, a fair and balanced way. In the end, we reached agreement in principle on how that could be done several days ahead of George's deadline. For being able to do so, I pay particular tribute to the fine work of Martin Mansergh and some of the officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs. A formula was hammered out in which they made a very significant input which reflected the accommodation I just mentioned.

The accommodation was founded on the principle of self-determination by the people of Ireland, consent, the equal validity of two fundamental identities of union and unity, acceptance of the current status of Northern Ireland based on consent and a pathway to a united Ireland in the future, also based on consent. Other elements of an agreed way forward constitutionally would be a shared commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means, power-sharing within Northern Ireland, meaningful arrangements for North-South co-operation which would reflect the practical advantages of such co-operation and the relationship symbolically between the two parts of Ireland and, of course, further embedding the importance of relations between Ireland and Britain.

It was understood by Tony Blair that a fair and balanced accommodation of the constitutional question would require changes to the Irish Constitution and the UK constitutional legislation. There were two other elements to settling the constitutional status question. First, we had to crack the conundrum around, on the one hand, ensuring the birthright to Irish citizenship of nationalists living in Northern Ireland without imposing it on unionists who did not see themselves as Irish. The way we did this was by introducing the concept of entitlement as a kind of junction box. It would be the entitlement of everyone in Northern Ireland, as a birthright, to be part of the Irish nation. That way, nationalists would be able to exercise access to our citizenship as a birthright, while unionists who wished otherwise would simply decide not to exercise their entitlement and nothing was imposed on them.

This construct was incorporated into the eventual agreement in two ways. It was in the language of the proposed amendment to Article 2 of the Constitution and Article 1 of the British-Irish Agreement as follows: "[The two Governments] recognise the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose".

The other key feature of the understanding on constitutional issues we arrived at was that whichever Government was exercising sovereignty over Northern Ireland, whether in the context of union or unity, would do so with rigorous impartiality as between the identity, aspirations and ethos of both communities.In many ways, this part of the agreement has tended to be overshadowed by the focus on the institutions. Crucial as the latter are, without having reached the shared understanding together on the very thorny issues around the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, there would have been no Good Friday Agreement. While I am all for listening respectfully to the concerns of the unionist community around the Northern Ireland protocol and the Windsor Framework, I say, equally respectfully, to my unionist friends that honouring the balance of the Good Friday Agreement is a two-way street. I am sorry, but the starting point in the debate about the status of Northern Ireland today is not the Act of Union. It is the solemn agreement reached by the governments and the parties on 10 April 1998 and endorsed by the people on 22 May 1998. This is our opening space, and if we honour – I feel sure we will – what we did in 1998, we will find a way to settle our differences equitably today.

That was a bit of a digression from the narrative on the closing hours of the Good Friday Agreement, but it was important to make those points clearly about the constitutional question 25 years on and put them on the record of the Seanad, which I know understands why I needed to make them.

We got to the early hours of Good Friday morning and agreement in principle on strands 1 and 2 and the constitutional question was in the bag. We had also reached understandings on how to tackle policing and justice, two of the agreement's critical building blocks. On policing, and given the significant issues involved, it was felt that the best way to proceed, akin to the formula agreed on strand 2, was to put in place a subsequent programme of works to tackle the detail. This would take the form of an independent commission, which was tasked with making recommendations on the future of policing arrangements in Northern Ireland, including means of encouraging widespread community support for those arrangements. The latter became known as the Patten commission. I will take this opportunity to thank Chris Patten and his colleagues, including Dr. Maurice Hayes, a former Member of this House, for their magnificent work in their report, which led to the establishment in 2002 of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI. While the service has had its challenges over the years, there is widespread agreement on all sides that, on the whole, it has done, and is doing, a fine job. Without question, policing, which was long a source of considerable controversy in Northern Ireland, has been transformed and is one of the great success stories of the Good Friday Agreement.

In that spirit, I send my best wishes and those of everyone else in the Chamber to Chief Inspector John Caldwell and his family.

Senators:

Hear, hear.

Mr. Bertie Ahern:

We hope he makes the fullest possible recovery. We condemn in absolute terms the shocking attack on him and call again on those involved to stop now.

What was left? Sinn Féin, whose delegation was just around the corner from that of the Irish Government on the same floor at Castle Buildings was not happy with a number of matters. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness came to see me in the early hours of Friday morning to voice their concerns and they left me a document with a lengthy list of questions. My team put together draft answers to them all and I signed off on them. To be fair to Gerry and Martin, they accepted my answers and declared themselves broadly satisfied. At 7 a.m., their spokesperson, Mitchel McLaughlin, went out to brief the media and said that agreement was looking likely, which felt like a fair reflection of the growing mood in the building.

In the course of the night, Tony Blair and I continued to work on some of the remaining thorny issues, such as decommissioning and prisoner releases. We eventually settled on the language around both of these issues in the agreement. All parties would reaffirm their commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations and "use any influence they may have, to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms within two years following endorsement in referendums North and South of the agreement". For prisoners, a similar two-year framework was used. In effect, the two governments would establish a scheme of early release in legislation, on the basis of which all qualifying prisoners would be out within two years of the commencement of the scheme.

We had already reached agreement on arrangements for validation and review of the agreement. On validation, a novel idea, which was prefigured in the Framework Document and was inspired by John Hume, was settled upon, the agreement reached in the talks would be subsequently put to the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic in simultaneous referendums, to be held on 22 May 1998. Looking back, this was a profoundly important innovation, as it meant that what emerged was not just a political agreement, but one that enjoyed the sovereign support of the people of the island of Ireland as their settled will. To its credit, the Women's Coalition, led by Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sagar, who also played an invaluable role throughout the talks, insisted that the text had to include reference to victims of violence. They made sure that was inserted.Important language also included rights, safeguards and economic, social and cultural issues. We also added an introductory section to the agreement called the declaration of support. This turned out to be an important setter of the mood and tone of the agreement itself. It contained straightforward language of regret for the legacy of the past, the hurt that had been caused to so many and the affirmation by all participants to a future based on partnership, equality, mutual respect and conciliation. It is also an appropriate moment to remind everybody of the valuable interventions during the night by President Bill Clinton. My goodness, he worked those phones. He was in constant touch with all of the key players, encouraging, cajoling and persuading. Frankly, it was hugely helpful and we will always be in his debt, as we will in respect of Tony Blair. I know I have mentioned his name a number of times during this speech but truly, he was significant throughout the whole period in terms of the search for peace in Northern Ireland. It was a task he continued to pursue during the remaining years until 2007. I was blessed to have him as my partner and friend through the process. No words of mine can adequately capture my gratitude for what he did for Ireland and for peace on our island.

By 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. the morning of Good Friday, 10 April, one day after Senator Mitchell's deadline, we were ready to close. The understanding was that agreement in principle had now been reached on all of the major elements that we have been describing here. What remained to be done was for Senator Mitchell and his team to undertake the important and complex task of pulling all the elements together, making enough copies for all participants and circulating the final draft one last time to each delegation. The task was completed around 11 a.m. and the precious copies were circulated to all delegations. Senator Mitchell set 12.45 p.m. as the time for the final plenary, at which it was hoped all delegations would sign off and we would all go home. As most of you know, that is not quite how things worked out. About 20 minutes into our reading of the final draft, word spread like wildfire around the building that the UUP was in trouble. I subsequently learned from David Trimble and Reg Empey, who was one of the top negotiators on the UUP side and now Lord Empey, that a very large UUP delegation had gathered in the room on the ground floor with the door locked. Several delegates began to believe that the totality of the text, taken in the round, was too much for them to be able to sell to their community. They were particularly unhappy about the proposed arrangements on decommissioning and the early release of prisoners. David Trimble sent word to George Mitchell to postpone the plenary. To say that every other delegation collapsed in exhaustion would not be too much of an overstatement. The pessimism came out in force with people saying they told us it would never be agreed or it was too good to be true and asking when were we getting out of there and all the rest. Tony Blair and I held our nerve for the following number of hours, which by the way were among the longest hours in my life. The heavy lifting fell to Tony Blair and David Trimble. They huddled together in Mr. Blair's office on the fourth floor several times during that period. In the end, it came down to further assurances on decommissioning and at 4.30 p.m., Tony Blair dictated a letter to David Trimble giving him further comfort in that regard. Jonathan Powell delivered the letter to Mr. Trimble. Having read it, and regarding it as sufficient, I gather he stood on a chair in the room and told his colleagues he was going to call George Mitchell to say he was ready to sign. Those who wished to follow him should, and those who could not, so be it. Colleagues, I say to you that all of this was a seminal moment in the entire peace process and one for which I think we will forever be grateful to David Trimble.

In any case, George Mitchell convened the plenary. Everyone rushed to the conference before anyone else changed their mind and there followed the moment of history that you have no doubt seen many times on television. Senator Mitchell went around the room asking the heads of each delegation to say whether they were assenting or not. Thankfully, we all know now the happy answer to that question was that the Good Friday Agreement was done. Minutes later, Tony Blair and I had one further duty, which was the separate and parallel document called simply, Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Ireland. In effect, this incorporated from the agreement reached in the multiparty talks the elements that were specifically for the two Governments to take action on.In actuality, the two documents together constitute what we call today the Good Friday Agreement. Immediately afterwards, Tony Blair and I went out to the media.

There you have it, a Chathaoirligh. I apologise that this has been a lengthy account. However, I said to myself, having done endless interviews and programmes on the 25th anniversary that I would once put it all on the record somewhere. I wanted to take time to set it out, as I have here, from my perspective at this seminal time. I can think of no more meaningful a place in which to make that speech than the floor of the Seanad, and I thank Members for giving me the opportunity to do so.

Regarding the future, there is quite rightly a lot of excitement about how things might evolve and the possibilities for the next Ireland. The agreement provides the template and pathway in that regard. In personal terms, I share in that excitement. However, I would also add this word of caution from my experience. The contestation which gave rise to the Troubles is absolutely intact. True, and thankfully, it is no longer, for the most part, exercised through the barrel of a gun, but it remains visceral and real. My plea is that we continue to remember the lessons of history. By all means, let us dream about the future and plan for it, but let us never forget that right beside us are neighbours who see the world very differently.

This time 25 years ago, our quest was accommodation between unionism and nationalism in the context of the wider relationship and history between Ireland and Britain. In my view, that is still our quest. Let accommodation continue to be the door we go through. Let us continue to engage with each other, and to listen respectfully to each other. That was how we achieved what we did 25 years ago and that is what will take us through the next 25 years as well. I am certain that if we take that approach, the journey to the destination will take care of itself.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Mr. Ahern is right. This Upper House of the Oireachtas is the most appropriate forum and venue in which to have his address and put everything together.

I welcome to the Gallery Ms Sandra Cullagh, who helped to prepare for today. I thank her for her advice and the many phone calls. I also thank Mr. John Grange. I welcome Mr. Joe English, Ms Brenda English, Mr. Mark Simpson, Ms Jessica Kelly, Mr. Conor Muldoon, Mr. Cian Bambrick and Mr. Patrick Hynes, and also, our great friend and former Seanad Leader or Iar-Cheannaire, Mr. Donie Cassidy. He is very welcome to the Gallery, as is Ms Sarah Kelly, who is here in her own right but also with Senator Wilson's team.

I welcome Mr. Jeremy Wilmshurst, first secretary in the British Embassy, and Ms Michelle Lacriarde, first secretary for Northern Ireland, who are here on behalf of the British ambassador who cannot be here today. I thank them for being here. We also send our best wishes to Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell and wish him and his family well on his journey to happy health. We thank him for his service and remember him today. We also have apologies from the Trimble and Hume families, who were to be here today but could not be with us.

I now call Senator Lisa Chambers who is sharing time with Senator Niall Blaney. Is that correct?

Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is correct.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern is very welcome to the Chamber. It is a pleasure and a privilege for us to hear, in fascinating detail, his recounting of the lead-up to the Good Friday Agreement, the behind-the-scenes conversations and all of the detail which went into delivering what he delivered. It is important that we mark the 25th anniversary of the referendum, which took place 25 years ago yesterday. It was an all-island vote and a democratic endorsement by the Irish people of the Good Friday Agreement. We are delighted the former Taoiseach has chosen the Seanad as the place to put on the record all of the work which he and many others whom he has recounted did in achieving peace on the island of Ireland.

It is clear that after many decades of conflict, it was hugely significant to get to a point where everybody could get around the table and agreement could be reached. As Mr. Ahern said, it may have seemed simple once they got there but getting there was by no means simple. It is obvious that it took understanding and listening and that those around the table represented the people whom they represented and their communities, but that there was also a facilitation of different views and a stepping into each other's shoes to understand what the other needed.It was also quite obvious during those negotiations that it was not about the negotiators themselves, as personal issues were parked, but about achieving peace on the island and an end to conflict. The one thing that everyone agreed on from the start was that the violence had to end.

I was struck when Mr. Ahern spoke about the impact that he felt social media might have had on those negotiations if it were around at the time. He once remarked that if Twitter had existed then, we may not have had a peace agreement. That is a very good point to make and it reminds us of the different political environment that we operate in today. We should bemoan the fact that it might be difficult to achieve such compromises and agreements in future because of the far more aggressive, confrontational and acrimonious political environment we now operate in.

My understanding is that there were four distinct elements to what was achieved and where we are today. First, the parties had to design a peace agreement that they felt could actually be agreed upon. To do that, they had to step into the shoes of one another and understand each other's different perspectives. Ultimately, everybody had to want peace and that was very obvious. Second, the parties had to compromise to reach agreement. Compromising takes courage and is something of which to be proud. It is not something that one should every shirk away from. At the same time, everybody had to give something and nobody achieved everything that they wanted. Very importantly, the peace needed to be maintained and it will always be a work in progress. It is both remarkable and significant that we have made it to the 25th anniversary and we want to make it to the next 25 years and beyond. Brexit and the collapse in power-sharing have had an impact but we will get through that and are doing so now.

Finally, to move forward and assure the future of the peace, we must resolve the legacy issues for peace and reconciliation. We must re-examine the relationships between North, the South, the UK, Ireland and the EU. There has to be an all-island focus on maintaining the peace agreement.

Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom chur fáilte agus buíochas don iar-Thaoiseach, Bertie Ahern. It is very fitting that he is here today of all days, the anniversary of the holding of the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement. I am delighted to get the opportunity to thank him for all that he has done, not just in those crucial weeks but in all of the negotiations that took place before then.

One issue that he has not touched on today, which we could spend another day discussing, is selling the agreement. There was an awful lot of anxiety among the nation, North and South, in respect of Articles 2 and 3 and where we stood afterwards with regard to our claim on Northern Ireland. An awful lot of work went into this and we are delighted that Mr. Ahern is here, sharing his experiences with us. It is great to get an opportunity to acknowledge the effort he put in and the time he invested but, most importantly, to recognise the thousands of lives that have been saved on this island as a result of his efforts and those of everyone involved. Unfortunately, time is short so I cannot name all of the others involved.

I was delighted to work with my colleague on the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Senator Currie, on inviting all of the architects of the agreement to give testimony. It was really important that the Houses of the Oireachtas had the opportunity to hear those testimonies. We need to realise how peace was gained. It was not simple and it is really important that this was put on the record.

I have two questions that I want to pick Mr. Ahern's brain on and get his wisdom on. The first relates to the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. What are his thoughts on that? It is quite dangerous legislation. I wish we had more time to dwell on this question, but not today. The other question relates to the Windsor Framework. Some have declared the framework a major win for both islands but we still have the same stalemate in Northern Ireland. Was it really a win or did we miss something in the trick?

I thank Mr. Ahern again for being here.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the presence in the Gallery of Deputy Cormac Devlin from Dublin Rathdown. He is very welcome to the House today.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Senator Currie.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Is that three minutes each?

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Yes.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Is cúis áthais dom mo bhuíochas agus buíochas mo chomhghleacaithe a ghabháil le Mr. Ahern as bheith anseo inniu. Bhí a ráiteas iontach spéisiúil agus an-stairiúil. Is ócáid speisialta é go bhfuilimid ag ceiliúradh an chonartha le Mr. Ahern agus ag éisteacht leis ar an lá speisialta seo. Táimid an-bhuíoch de.

It is a great source of happiness and, indeed, an honour for me to thank Mr. Ahern for being here today. I know that he is generous with his time and willing to do so many of these events. On a parochial level, I know that he has many good friends in the Cavan community in Dublin and that we share a number of those friendships. In that regard, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciate the fact that he did a very interesting interview with my neighbour, Seán McKiernan, relating to matters around St. Patrick's Day, but not unrelated to today's work.

It is typical of Mr. Ahern that he generously recognises all the other actors in the peace process - our own Senator McDowell; the father of our colleague, Senator Currie, who carries that baton very well; the former Deputy, Gerry Adams; Martin McGuinness; and the former Taoiseach, John Bruton - we are very proud of the stewardship that he continued to give the Good Friday Agreement. When he came into power, he recognised it. We wish him well at the moment.

Mr. Ahern brought enormous qualities to the negotiating process. He brings with him an extraordinary emotional intelligence. That is a very necessary quality in these instances. He obviously has great negotiating skills. He could put himself in other people's position, which is so important.

It was fascinating to hear his first-hand account of the history of the period. It is the first time that I had the privilege. It is a first for most people because, as Mr. Ahern said, he chose today to go into the detail. It is interesting that he did because the Seanad was part of the initial apparatus at the foundation of the State and it has been a critical voice. Many Northern voices have been here to great effect. It is fascinating that Mr. Ahern should have done that today here. We are grateful for that. It is a further recognition of the Seanad and of his subtle understanding of history and his appreciation of every position.

I might digress to welcome the guests, including my old friend and former colleague, Donie Cassidy, with whom I served for some time.

The Good Friday Agreement's primary success was to bring the violence to an end. Like you, a Chathaoirligh, I used to put on the radio in the morning with great apprehension and fear. It was wonderful to see the violence stop. There are of course legacy issues to be dealt with, and they have been, and will be, cited.

Mr. Ahern's very wise words about Irish unity are appreciated and should be borne in mind by us all as we approach the future. It is a great occasion. I thank him for being here. I am delighted to be part of it.

Emer Currie (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank both speakers for their kind words about my dad. It is very much appreciated. I think he would agree with me when I say that we were the lucky ones. I too want to remember the 3,700 people who lost their lives and, of course, the people who never gave up on finding peace.

I thank Mr. Ahern for marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement with us today. I have had the opportunity to hear him speak a number of times over the past six months and I learn something new every time.Your contribution to our report was very important. No one can deny the role you played, along with your British counterpart Tony Blair, when you both became Heads of Government. That role will be remembered in history. You both knew the destination, a path that took decades to carve out and that had many footprints over the years but you still had to get us there. If that opportunity has been missed, how many more lives would have been lost or destroyed? You and Blair set the bar for good Anglo-Irish relations, followed by Kenny and Cameron, helped by Major with Bruton and with Reynolds – partnerships that we now look at with envy in an era of convergence rather than divergence. They showed us what happens when Ireland and UK Governments work together and what is at stake when they do not.

The Windsor Framework is an accommodation that must be grasped after Brexit, which has been disastrous for Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement. The closer-than-close UK and Ireland relationship that was facilitated by daily interactions through shared membership of the EU, shared membership of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, through shared laws and regulations must now be recreated. The institutions of the Good Friday Agreement, like the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference and bodies like the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA, were set up to do that. Now they must be prioritised and invested in, through regular and consistent contact, including at the top levels. I thank my colleagues, Senators Wilson and Ó Donnghaile, for their work on the BIPA report we did.

We still have a very tough fight ahead of us when it comes to legacy, as the UK Government ignores calls to work together on legacy and has appointed a chief commissioner to a body that has yet to be set up under law. We must use every lever disposable, both within and outside the bilateral relationship, to ensure this damaging legislation does not go ahead. I have just one other point-----

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Tá an t-am caite.

Emer Currie (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As part of the commemoration of 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement, we met the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains. That has been a success for some families but not for all. There are still four families who are waiting for their loved ones to be returned. We remember families like that of Columba McVeigh, who are searching for Columba at the moment in County Monaghan. I just want to thank Mr. Ahern for his contribution to peace on our island and for the opportunity to thank him.

Michael McDowell (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In some institutions on an occasion like this, two motions are proposed. One is motion of thanks to the speaker for his address and the second is that the paper should be printed and circulated. I theoretically propose both of those motions.

The account you have given is one that I have not heard in detail before. I am very glad that you have had the opportunity to put on the record the exact circumstances as you saw them at the time leading up to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Some 25 years have elapsed since then. When you were sitting down in Stormont with the participants then, 25 years had also elapsed since the 1974 Sunningdale Agreement. One of those ended in failure, really, and the other ended in success.

You have signalled to me that I should be discreet, and I will be because there are 20-year rules and 40-year rules, but I want everybody in this House to know two important facts. Ireland and Britain are extremely lucky that two men came into office at a crucial time who trusted each other, who were friendly to each other and above all, who were friendly to the interests of both of these islands and could see the future. We were very lucky indeed. You have very humbly acknowledged the role of many people, and other people's names occur to me but I do not think it is fair to try to enumerate them here today. However, I will say this: in all the time between when I became Attorney General in the summer of 1999, a year after the Good Friday Agreement, and when I ceased to be Tánaiste in 2007, you honoured me and trusted me to participate with you in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.It was in that capacity that I saw the considerable effort Mr. Ahern put into making sure the agreement was not like the Sunningdale Agreement, which perished on the paper, but instead became a reality. Nobody should forget that implementation of the Good Friday Agreement was not an easy thing. Even to this day, half the time since 1998 has been spent without an operational Executive in Northern Ireland. There have been difficulties from decommissioning to criminality and policing, but Mr. Ahern persisted from the 1998 agreement to the St. Andrews Agreement in 2007, which I can say was close-run without divulging any other secrets. Mr. Ahern and I saw how close-run many of these discussions were and how difficult it was to bring about implementation of the agreement. I agree with Senator Currie and Mr. Ahern that the challenge is to make these institutions work. There is no reason they should not work. They are not perfect and different architectures could be suggested. However, I agree with Mr. Ahern's recent remarks that this is not the time to re-engineer the architecture of Northern Ireland. This is the time, imperfect though it may be, to get it up and running.

The post-Brexit situation that has arisen, including the situation in British politics, marks a move towards a more positive and better outlook for the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement. This includes the full establishment of a relationship and genuine partnership between the two communities in Northern Ireland, which are numerically imbalanced, and a chance to grasp the opportunity of membership of the Single Market and access to the UK market. Such an opportunity puts the people of Northern Ireland collectively in a position which nobody else in this region of the world is in. They have an opportunity which Mr. Ahern created for them by the groundwork he did in 1998, as he described here today.

However, what he has not described is the incredible work that he and Mr. Blair did, which I was privileged to see. Such work was done at meeting after meeting at Weston Park, Leeds Castle, Hillsborough Castle and Downing Street. A huge amount of work was put in to making the Good Friday Agreement a success. It could not have succeeded if Mr. Ahern had not thrown his commitment into that phase of the implementation, just as much as the initial signing of the agreement. I am deeply grateful to him. I will refer to two occasions. First, we both had to endure Jamie Oliver's squid in ink for lunch one day in Downing Street, which I think was a bit of a trial for both of us. The second was a very interesting breakfast in Mr. Blair's room in the St. Andrews centre in 2007.

This House and the Irish people owe Mr. Ahern an immense debt of gratitude. I hope this is recognised by the Irish people and that Mr. Ahern's sterling address is appreciated for what it is, that is, the honest and humble reflection of a person who did this nation a great service.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the students from Inch National School in Youghal. We are delighted they and their teachers are here with us on a significant day in Seanad Éireann. I also welcome our friend and colleague, who served in Leinster House for many a year and advised many different Ministers and Governments, Mr. Derek Mooney. He is very welcome. I know he is hiding over there.

Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agaibh a chairde agus bainim fáilte is fiche a chuir roimh an tUasal Ahern. I welcome Mr. Ahern to the House. Like other colleagues, I do not want to just commend his address but I also want to take the opportunity on a personal level to thank him for his role in helping to secure, with others, the Good Friday Agreement. As Mr. Ahern was speaking, I thought about the period around Christmas 1997. We all have memories of conflict in the preceding decades, if not centuries, in Ireland. I remember that period very well. I remember the murder of Terry Óg Enright while he worked as a doorman to earn a few extra pounds for his young family. I remember my mother coming downstairs as we were getting ready for school and insisting that we would be getting a taxi to school that day because she was afraid for us walking into the city centre in our school uniforms, leaving the vulnerable nationalist area where we lived. That experience of fear was shared by so many families across so many communities. Terry Óg Enright lost his life on 11 January 1998, I think it was. It is hard to believe that it was just a couple of months later, in April 1998, that the agreement was signed and everything that brought about.

My colleagues on the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement will have heard me tell this story far too many times. One of the images that strikes my mind from that day is the fact that it was snowing. This was unusual for April, even in an Irish context. We were watching the television, waiting on word to emerge from Castle Buildings. It was a fast day so we were eating chip sandwiches. There were no big dinners that day in the house. I remember Mr. Ahern emerging in his black tie and the impact that had on people right across the board on a very human level, given the loss that he had experienced over the course of those final hours.

There was also a great deal of excitement. We had relatives, friends and neighbours who were political prisoners. There was a great deal of nervousness and uncertainty. As I mentioned, we were from a vulnerable community that had had to rely on itself in the first instance, to defend itself, over many years. In the midst of all of this, there was a great deal of hope for the future and what could be achieved for everyone.

The Good Friday Agreement brought permanent peace to Ireland, albeit, in those initial years, an imperfect peace. It did so because it dealt with the issues at the heart of the conflict and set an all-Ireland institutional framework for their resolution, the North-South Ministerial Council, the Executive and Assembly and the east-west arrangements. These frameworks are based on respect, inclusion, equality and human rights. It also provides, as other colleagues have mentioned, for a referendum North and South to allow the people of Ireland to decide the constitutional future of Ireland. These novel arrangements are crucial and are making an invaluable contribution to reconciliation, respect and dialogue between the unionist and nationalist people of this island. This dialogue is ongoing and progress is being made despite all of the challenges. The all-Ireland referendum in 1998 was the correct response to consolidating peace at that time. An all-Ireland referendum, will in its time, contribute to resolving the constitutional question on the same basis of peace as the referendum did in 1998. It is important and appropriate that Mr. Ahern is here in the Seanad to address us today. However, it is important that the Dáil and Seanad play their part in the ongoing debate about this country's constitutional future.

It is crucial that the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are re-established. It is also crucial that the seismic and historic results from last week's local government elections in the North and the message they send, are not only recognised and understood, but delivered upon. While the Good Friday Agreement is a punctuation point in our history, it is by no means a lán stad, a full stop. As Gerry Adams said recently, it was an agreement to a journey. Here we have rightly marked the last 25 years of that journey. It has been a challenging one with its ups and downs, but I for one, am glad you all decided to make it together.

The key now will be to chart the next part of the journey and the course ahead for all of us. The Good Friday Agreement points the way for constitutional change and a new and agreed Ireland. It is time we planned for that. The only thing I would disagree with Mr. Ahern on is just a word.Mr. Ahern would expect me to say this. I do not disagree with any of the sentiments, just the one word. From those negotiations he will know how important words can be. The issue of constitutional change is no longer a dream. It is not something to be dreamt of or to be slept on; it is something to work for and plan for. It is a project that we can win and, like the Good Friday Agreement, win for us all.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to the House today in recognition of his enormous contribution to delivering the deal that was the Good Friday Agreement. I thank him for the account he has given on that process today. Much has been said over recent weeks and months about the agreement. While first and foremost the agreement was about being the instrument to end decades of conflict and bloodshed, the standout element for me is that this was a deal upon which to do future deals. It was an agreement to set a framework and the context for future opportunity. It was an agreement to build something. I think Mr. Ahern's main political legacy is that he is and was dealmaker.

As Mr. Ahern rightly acknowledged, many people were part of the process to deliver the agreement. I am delighted he acknowledged the work done by the Women's Coalition and indeed many others. As has already been alluded to, the final week was a particularly difficult time for him personally. The striking thing is that no matter what the achievement or the support network around any of us, we are all human with families and all that goes with that.

This is an opportunity to look back but even more so, it is an opportunity to look ahead to the future of the North. While some may not accept this, the beauty of the Good Friday Agreement was that it offered an opportunity, particularly to unionists, to show that Northern Ireland could be made to work, that it could be viable with two sets of special relationships. Of course, as we know, the leaders of unionism have chosen a different course, a self-destructive course. Ironically, even though Brexit is a disaster, it has expedited the conversation about the island of Ireland, a conversation that I wholeheartedly welcome and am very excited about. I agree with the comments of the former Taoiseach some weeks ago about the necessity, first and foremost, to get the institutions up and running. Many of us believe there can be no prospect of ever having a viable, sustainable settlement on this island if we cannot even demonstrate the basics of political interaction to people first.

Regarding the conversation about the future, as previous speakers said, it is vital that we allow for closure with regard to the past. In that context, a truth recovery process is long overdue. The cowardly and shameful effort by the British Government to lock away the past is the antithesis of what needs to happen but it must also be the spur to us all here. As we all know, total disclosure as envisaged in the Stormont House Agreement requires absolute commitment and full co-operation by both Governments, something that we have not seen from the British Government for some time. As has been said, the Good Friday Agreement would not have happened, could not have happened, without the wholehearted personal commitment by both Governments at that time. That spirit now needs to be invoked again. We need to move the dial on to achieve the truth, justice and peace that so many communities, households and families in the North are looking for.

Some weeks ago, the co-ordinators of the legacy matters project appeared before the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. They talked about their vision for a justice facilitation unit and a truth recovery unit, which are vital. The process of information verification is important not only in itself but to the justice remediation project that needs to happen.

I am really struck by one of the stories that we have seen in recent weeks, that of John Crawford a father of nine who was murdered nearly 50 years ago. His family did not get answers because his killer confessed and there was no cross-examination, the Police Ombudsman investigation was described as a waste of time and the Historical Enquiries Team could not properly function owing to the lack of co-operation by an officer of the RUC.Ultimately, however, his son did get answers because the UVF engaged in a process with the family. It is fantastic that we have this unique example of a family getting answers. There are lessons there for us all. I thank the former Taoiseach for being here today. The remembrance of events 25 years ago needs to spur us all on to ensure there is a lasting peace and that there is a healthy, prosperous and vibrant future for the island of Ireland, in particular, for the people of the North.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I should apologise to Senator Keogan who had guests from the Balbriggan Men's Shed this afternoon. I did not get to welcome them and thank them for being here as I did not see them in time. I welcome from Balbriggan independent councillors Tony Murphy and Gráinne Maguire.

Frances Black (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Mr. Ahern is very welcome and I join with others in commending him on his very hard work and efforts to secure peace in Northern Ireland. There is no doubt we are in a much better place as a result of the collective work and his work to achieve the Good Friday Agreement. I am speaking today on behalf of my colleagues in the Civil Engagement Group. I welcome any chance to speak about the importance of the Good Friday Agreement on its 25th anniversary.

When commemorating the Good Friday Agreement it is important to remember that it is not a fixed moment in the past. The Good Friday Agreement is a living document affirmed by the majority of voters living on the island in 1998. It was the culmination of years of hard work in which I know Mr. Ahern was involved. It was the work of tolerance and understanding radically different perspectives. This work was not undertaken by only a small group of politicians and diplomats. The work was undertaken, and we have to remember this, at the grassroots level all over Northern Ireland by community workers, activists and ordinary people. It was not very glamorous as we can imagine. It was not televised and it was not easy but it was very much essential.

We need to ensure we do not forget the contributions made at all levels of society, particularly now that civil society and the community sector in the North are under so much pressure due to the withdrawal of EU funding. The Good Friday Agreement remains foundational and fundamental. We have to remember the agreement is far bigger than any movement or single person. It was a collective democratic gift from a conflict-weary population to the next generation. It was a gift of peace. It is the framework for cross-community covenant in the North. It is imperfect but vital and, crucially, it provides a democratic peaceful process for the island of Ireland.

In my capacity as a member of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and as chair of Ireland's Future, I have seen first-hand the expanding appetite for the conversation about constitutional change. It is happening around kitchen tables all over the country. The removal of Northern Ireland from the EU against its will, the intermittent operation of power-sharing in Stormont, and the emergence of a young cohort of voters who view the prospect of Ireland's reunification more positively means the issue of a border poll is now impossible to ignore. This is welcome. A border poll is a democratic opportunity made possible by the Good Friday Agreement.

I know, however, there is a lot of work to do to make sure such a poll is decided based on facts and reasoned debate rather than fear-mongering or false promises. We have begun to undertake some important first steps in this journey with the work of the shared island unit and the Seanad Public Consultation Committee driven by Senator Mark Daly. There is also the work being done by Ireland's Future in organising well-attended events throughout Ireland and beyond, engaging with political parties and other civil society organisations, producing substantial policy papers to shape the debate about a new and united Ireland and, of course, work on the Good Friday Agreement and constitutional change. There is so much more to do.

We have seen the disastrous impact that a poorly defined referendum with deeply misleading campaigning and a chaotic implementation can have. Brexit is a textbook case of all the dangers posed by a lack of planning and preparation. It should act as a warning for us to make sure we expand the energy, attention and resources necessary to ensure the debate on a border poll is factual and delivered to an informed and engaged public who can critically appraise the arguments being presented on both sides.The referendum on the repeal of the eighth amendment is a good example of how having existing policy frameworks agreed in advance of a referendum can enrich the discourse and can empower voters to feel confident making their decision based on a predictable outcome. This means that voters are less susceptible to demagoguery and are less likely to regret their decision. The Good Friday Agreement is ultimately about putting the future of Northern Ireland in the hands of the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic.

I feel the Good Friday Agreement has transformed our society. The peace it delivered created economic and cultural opportunities that have improved many, many lives. The border poll provision provides a democratic opportunity not just to unify the North and South, but also to sweep aside the inequality and injustice of the past and to forge a new Ireland with values of social justice, solidarity and equality at its core. I am very aware that Mr. Ahern was involved in so much work. I sincerely thank him for all the work that he has done on this issue. There is no doubt about it. Ireland is now in a much better place for it.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In his contribution Senator Joe O’Reilly referred to John Bruton. On behalf of all of us, I thank Mr. Bruton for his work and wish him every good health. I also ask Mr. Jeremy Wilmshurst to convey our thanks to Ambassador Johnston for his wonderful engagement with us here. We thank Mr. Wilmshurst for his engagement with Members of the House and for being here today. Iarraim ar an iarThaoiseach, Parthalán Ó hEachthairn, freagra a thabhairt ar an ndíospóireacht. I call on Mr. Ahern to respond to the debate.

Mr. Bertie Ahern:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and all the Senators for their kind remarks. It is most pleasing that people appreciate that we put the whole thing together. It was one morning in the heart of the winter when I discussed this first with the Cathaoirleach. I had put the full text of what I wanted to say to the Seanad staff and I told them it would take about an hour and a half, we decided that was not a good idea and we managed to get it back to 40 minutes. I thank everyone for their comments on that.

I will make just a few points as I only have a few minutes. I had the opportunity of attending the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and want to thank everyone for the work put into that. That committee did a tremendous job getting so many people together. During the year, some of its members were also were kind enough to come and meet a think-tank I am involved with in the North. I could not get the think-tank to meet the committee because some people have a fear of coming into Leinster House for some unknown reason. I will not mention any names but we managed to get a meeting across the road. I thank people for doing that. That day surprised me and it showed some of the difficulties. We had been having a two-day session in Buswells Hotel and on one of the mornings, we were all to come across here. At breakfast, everybody was coming, bar one who had not appeared, but as soon as that one person decided they could not come across the road, we lost the whole audience. We ended up just with the nationalist brigade coming across. That was only February. It is not so easy to get people to come along, believe me, and that was a friendly meeting.

In my long list, I had all the names that I could think of. The list is very long and I would have liked to have included everyone. There was a whole group that came before me. Dick Spring did a huge amount of work in the previous period. I have acknowledged that on other occasions. An enormous number of people contributed in different ways and in different organisations. I want to say that we are remembering them all collectively and there are many of them.I honestly think that getting the institutions up and running is a priority now. Senators heard what I said about the constitutional position - it is not the Act of Union. I have explained at great length to members of the DUP that we cannot just rewrite sections of the Good Friday Agreement at several meetings over the past number of months. That is not possible because people voted on it and it passed. If there is some other way the British Government can help them out, and I hope there is, it cannot be done at the expense of what is there. I re-emphasise that today and I have done this face to face with the DUP in recent months. Let us hope we can get the institutions up. As Senator Black just said, there are a whole lot of issues about funding the community groups that require the money to get these things going, and we need to get them going.

I thank Senator Chambers for her remarks. As we move forward, the key thing is to try to keep ticking off the lessons. Senator Chambers mentioned the legacy issues, as did Senator Blaney. My view on the legislation is that is it bizarre. The only thing that every party in Northern Ireland agrees on is that the legislation is the wrong thing. That says something about it. The Stormont House Agreement was about the only thing that everyone agreed on. We have a position where it is the Stormont House Agreement versus the present legacy Bill. All the parties agree with the Stormont House Agreement but Mr. Rishi Sunak's Government will not implement it; all the parties are against the legacy legislation and the Tory Government wants to implement it. It is hard to believe. I had the pleasure of being able to say this when we were up in Hillsborough and I said to the Prime Minister if he had time to just think about that, he could only come to one conclusion, that the present legislation is wrong. It is just divisive and will not help anything. I could go on for a long time but I have made all my points.

We have all welcomed the Windsor Framework. Wen we get into all the intricacies of trade we have spent years on this. The last time I was here when Senator McDowell invited me to appear before the Brexit committee, which is now years ago. We discussed the trade issues and we have understood the trade issues for a long time. If there are still difficulties, we are all up for trying to resolve those difficulties. Sorting out trade issues is not about trying to in some way legislate to explain to people that the Union is stronger. If we were trying to move bananas and oranges around the place safely and to deal with the business end of that, I am not too sure what that has to do with strengthening the Union. I am all on for moving oranges and apples around safely but the Good Friday Agreement is the unity bit. We have to keep making that point. I am hopeful and I wish that these things would happen in the next few weeks but maybe we will have to wait a bit longer to do that.

In thanking every Senator, I want to thank Senator McDowell in particular. He soldiered on this with me for eight years from 1999 to 2007. There are really big advantages to having somebody who is physically tall and who is very strong. When tough things need to be said, he can say them with such ferocity that it is really helpful. I will not go into what meetings they were but he will recall them very well himself. There were many meetings where we had to cross fire and, by God, there was fire. Sometimes people would say to me that all of those Good Friday Agreement meetings seemed to be very sweet and honey. That was not my memory but we will not go into that. I do appreciate Senator McDowell's huge support during those years and for his words today. There were lengthy and very divisive meetings.It depended on who you were dealing with. I always remember that famous day when we were having difficulty with Secretary of State Mandelson. Some of my officials were very upset with him. I encouraged the man I mentioned in my speech as being a straight talking Kerryman, Paddy Teahon, to tell this to Tony Blair in order that he would understand it. I said there was no point in me saying it as the Prime Minister was tired of listening to me. I said to Paddy that he should say it and I set up the call. Paddy Teahon and I were in Malahide and Tony Blair was in No. 10 Downing Street. The call was to discuss what we would do. Paddy gave it straight down the line to Tony Blair what he thought of Mandelson. Tony Blair rang me an hour later to say, "By the way, Mandelson was listening to that call." I spent the next month digging myself out of that hole. There were good occasions and some other ones I would love to tell Senators about.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for his comments and support. I hope there will be many more occasions on which people will have an opportunity of looking at the ongoing progress the Good Friday Agreement will make in the years to come.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

From the cold of the Skylon Hotel, we come to the heat of May. I thank Sandra Cullagh again for her help and co-operation. Mar focal scoir, I call An Leas-Chathaoirleach.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Unusually enough, on this historic occasion, I second the former Attorney General, former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and current Senator McDowell in his proposal for thanks-----

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is no proposal on the Order of Business, as An Leas-Chathaoirleach knows, but we will amalgamate the proposals into reality.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am sure the former Attorney General will figure it out.

On this occasion, as we mark the anniversary of the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement, expressed through the ballot box by the people of the island, we know it was only the start of a long journey in the implementation of the promise of the agreement. As has been said many times, it is a peace process. Peace is not a moment in history. Peace is not when an agreement is made or ratified. Peace is the hard, often unseen, work of many people over months, years and decades.

Following the work by Mr. Ahern and many other taoisigh in advancing the build-up to the Good Friday Agreement, the ratification of the referendum was the start of nearly a decade of work by him and his counterpart in the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, working with successive US Administrations under Presidents Clinton and Bush and with our friends on Capitol Hill and throughout the US. Their support was steadfast, long and enduring. As a result of the relationships Mr. Ahern built up with the late Senator Ted Kennedy, current Senator Coons and Congressmen Richie Neal and Peter King, he went on to work with his partners in peace. They included George Mitchell, General de Chastelain and former Finnish Prime Minister, Harri Holkeri; the unionists David Trimble - Mr. Ahern acknowledged it as one of those seminal moments in the history of this island when Mr. Trimble stood up on that chair and asked people to follow him - and Reg Empey; the nationalists John Hume, Seamus Mallon and Bríd Rodgers; republicans Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness; loyalists Gary McMichael, David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson; the leader of the Alliance Party, John Alderdice; the formidable Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, led by Mr. Ahern's great friend, Monica McWilliams; Mo Mowlam and many others. They worked for one goal, namely, peace and to give the people of Northern Ireland the opportunity to decide and create their own peaceful future in which all people, regardless of who they are, would have the chance to reach their full potential.

While Mr. Ahern was building bridges in Northern Ireland and broadening understanding in his time leading the Government as Taoiseach, he also built roads and opportunities across this island. He built a motorway to Northern Ireland to connect people North and South. It is now possible to cross the country from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean in half the time it used to take.He expanded the infrastructure for future and higher education, allowing the people the opportunity to expand their horizons and reach their potential. In 1998, when the referendum was ratified, Ireland was ranked 21st in the world according to the UN Human Development Index in respect of health, education and income. Consequent to the investment in the people of this country under Mr. Ahern's policies and policies that followed him, Ireland is now ranked eighth, ahead of Germany and just behind Sweden. Mr. Ahern is an honorary professor in peace studies at the George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. He shares his experience and understanding with others around the world and advises them, including those in the Basque Country and Papua New Guinea who want to bring peace to their people. He is transforming the lives of people on distant shores. However, behind the scenes his quiet diplomacy on this island continues. In this regard, I have seen at first-hand the high esteem in which he is held by individuals, groups and organisations on all sides. Politics can be about labels and identity but, ultimately, it is about people. Politics is a contact sport. The more people you meet and the more you get to see their point of view, the more you understand where they are coming from. This is where Mr. Ahern is coming from with respect to the Good Friday Agreement, and it is where he is coming from today. He brings understanding on all sides.

Former Senator and Nobel prizewinner W.B. Yeats said of peace that it comes dropping slow. Twenty-five years ago, working with many on all sides, Mr. Ahern ensured that drops of peace would fall on this island. For his service, the people of this island are grateful.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That concludes this business. Again, I thank Mr. Ahern for being here and using the opportunity presented by an address Seanad Éireann to give the full story. We are glad he was here today and thank him.