Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 307: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the lack of progress on the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly. [24657/06]

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 308: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the role he is playing in assisting the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly. [24658/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 307 and 308 together.

When the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Blair met at Farmleigh on 26 January, they said that 2006 would be the decisive year for the peace process. Since that meeting, the Taoiseach and I have been engaged in intensive efforts, in conjunction with Prime Minister Blair and Secretary of State Hain, with the aim of achieving fully functioning devolved institutions in Northern Ireland this year. As part of this process, over recent months we have of course had regular and ongoing contact with the political parties.

As the Deputy is aware, on 6 April in Armagh, the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Blair set out the Governments' joint strategy for achieving a fully functioning Assembly and Executive in 2006. They announced that the Assembly would be recalled on 15 May and that Members would be given until 24 November, at the latest, to form an Executive. The strategy is founded on a shared conviction that devolved partnership government, as enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, provides the best opportunity to create a peaceful and prosperous Northern Ireland.

The Assembly was recalled on 15 May and in the last few weeks, for the first time in over three years, Assembly Members have been engaging with each other at Stormont. While in itself this is positive, it is also clear that for real progress to be achieved, the parties will need to use the weeks and months ahead to make serious and thorough preparations for power-sharing government.

To add impetus to that process, later this week I will accompany the Taoiseach to Stormont for a series of high-level meetings between the Governments and the political parties. We want the parties to use the time ahead for genuine engagement to chart the way for important decisions affecting the lives of every section of the community to be taken by locally elected politicians.

We have been clear that the deadline of 24 November for formation of an Executive is firm. I sincerely believe that if all sides are truly committed to working together, then there is no reason why, by that deadline, or even before, Northern Ireland should not have a First and Deputy First Minister and a power-sharing administration. I can assure the Deputy that I personally will spare no effort over the coming months to ensure that the Government is successful in achieving this objective.