Given the recent developments in the Northern Ireland situation, it would have been inappropriate to have a Dáil session today and not devote some time to a discussion of what has happened.
A statement issued by the Church and Government Committee of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland this week began with the stark sentence: "There are widespread feelings of fear, pain, confusion and stress throughout Ireland caused by the events of the last few weeks." The statement went on to identify decisions on parades as the immediate cause of the fear, pain, confusion and stress. It went further and pointed out that "the present situation requires the political process to be pursued positively which will involve courage and the taking of risks." The heart of this problem, as every Member of the House knows, is the failure to reach an accommodation around three sets of relationships: between the two communities in Northern Ireland, between both parts of Ireland and between Britain and Ireland.
The difficulties created, for example, by parades is but one manifestation of the underlying political problem and for this reason all our major efforts are directed towards negotiating agreement on political structures which will accommodate the three sets of relationships in a fruitful way.
Before dealing with the current political process I would like to reiterate some points about the parades and the severe difficulties which can arise as a result of handling them. I have already made my views known about the handling of the parade in Portadown. The authorities of a democratic state — any state — cannot afford to yield, or to be perceived to yield, to force or to the threat of force, cannot afford to be inconsistent and cannot afford to be partial in the way in which they apply the law. These basic tenets of democratic statecraft were, I have argued, breached in the case of the Portadown parade.
As is now clear, there is a deficiency in the regime for dealing with controversial parades in Northern Ireland. In this respect Northern Ireland is not Surrey, Dublin or Galway. It is a divided community with a long history of confrontational marches. That is why I have been pressing for a review of the arrangements for dealing with parades and marches, and I welcome the recent announcement by the Northern Ireland Secretary of State that the current arrangements are to be reviewed.
At present the arrangements do not allow for sufficient weight to be given to the overall interests of community relations and to the damage that may be done to these relations by allowing people to parade through areas where they are not welcome. At present there has to be a morally offensive auction between competing threats of violence and disruption. The RUC is placed in a position where, in the interests, as it sees it, of minimising harm, of achieving the least bad outcome, it has to make a calculation which essentially involves yielding to the greater threat of disorder even though the price of that may be a lesser degree of disorder. That is not an appropriate position for it to be in.
The parades arrangements clearly need to be revised to accommodate the issue of the likelihood of a parade resulting in long-term damage to community relations, something which has happened in recent times. In making decisions of this nature it might be profitable to study South African legislation which takes into account factors such as preventing "the causing, encouraging or fermenting of feelings of hostility between different population groups or parts of population groups". It should be possible to have arrangements put in place in Northern Ireland under which the identities of the two traditions can be recognised and accommodated in this way in regard to parades or demonstrations which can be offensive to one or other of them. Together with the Tánaiste, I will continue to monitor the parade situation closely. We are currently in discussion with the British authorities about possible upcoming flashpoints. We must not have a repetition of what happened on the Garvaghy Road.
No action or inaction on the part of the British Government in relation to Portadown justified the murder, intimidation, destruction of property and general mayhem which followed it right across Northern Ireland. Democracy fundamentally depends on the principle that people are free to argue against, disagree with and criticise the decisions of the lawful authority, but they are not free to disobey such decisions. I wish to quote the following from the Presbyterian Church statement:
...the properly constituted authorities of the state are to be obeyed. Only under the most extreme circumstances can this obligation be refused. We do not believe that such circumstances obtained in recent times.
That is a direct reference by the Presbyterian Church to the events in Portadown. I would go further and say there has not been, nor is there now, any justification for the use of violence to achieve political objectives. This is particularly so when negotiations are already taking place and for which the only entry qualification is that participating parties reject violence or any support for violence.
Of course all of us are frustrated at the pace of progress in these negotiations. After 40 days formal agreement has not yet been reached on the rules of procedure or on the agenda. This delay must at the same time be placed in the context of 25 years of violence and hundreds of years of division, supermacism, misunderstanding and fear in the northern part of this island. Procedural arguments which can appear superficial or almost irrelevant to outsiders can at the same time provide a means through which the participants acquire a sense of ownership of the process, thereby facilitating eventual agreement, and, perhaps, easier agreement, on issues of substance when the substance is eventually reached.
There have, however, been some recent encouraging developments in the talks. While I am inhibited by the confidentiality of the proceedings from giving details, I can say that we are working towards a situation where it might be possible to reach agreement before the holidays on many of the outstanding procedural issues and to pave the way for negotiations on the substantive questions after the short summer recess of the talks. These negotiations, involving the assistance of Senator George Mitchell, General de Chastelain and Prime Minister Holkeri, represent by far the best opportunity that has existed in out lifetime to arrive at a political settlement to accommodate the three relationships which have not worked in so far as this island is concerned and its relationship with its neighbour.
All the relevant parties are at the talks except Sinn Féin and all its members have to do to take their seats is persuade the IRA to restore the ceasefire. All the relevant issues are on the table at the talks and any participant can add any additional issue which he or she feels it is necessary to discuss. Both Governments have done an enormous amount of preparatory work to facilitate a successful outcome to the talks. During the past 40 days at the Belfast talks the Irish Government has shown its willingness to work with the other parties to the negotiations to accommodate their viewpoints. It is important that the political parties in the talks each take on their own responsibilities. The bigger the party the bigger the responsibility, not to its own supporters but to the entire community. The gainers in these talks will be those parties which take additional responsibility on their shoulders rather than those who try to pass off the responsibility for the hard, risky or difficult decision to another participant.
I wish to take this opportunity to emphasise three key points: the negotiations are serious and comprehensive and both Governments are committed to achieving a successful outcome; we will not allow decommissioning of arms to derail the negotiations — it will be tackled but only in parallel with other issues in the negotiations; and both Governments will do everything possible to promote confidence building during the talks. This has been explicitly recognised in the communiqué which Prime Minister Major and I issued in London on 28 February last. I hope these three points will reassure the Republican movement and finally convince it that now is the time to restore the ceasefire and to give the political process a chance. There has never been a better or more appropriate time to do this.
To the Unionist community, I repeat a message already articulated many times by me and by all of my recent predecessors as Taoiseach. The principle of consent as set out in the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Joint Framework Document is sacrosanct. There can be no change in the status of Northern Ireland unless and until a majority of the people there freely so decide. There has never been a more favourable climate or more constructive arrangements available for a successful negotiation. Again I say to Unionists, "You have seen the economic prospects and the security which 18 months of peace brought. How much more glittering is the prize which a lasting settlement of the cause of the division would bring? We on this side of the Border respect your traditions, heritage, beliefs and allegiance. We understand your fears and anxieties. We ask only that you respect the traditions, heritage, belief and allegiances of your Nationalist neighbours and that you, too, understand their fears and anxieties." As the Presbyterian Church statement made clear, the achievement of success in the political negotiations will involve courage and the taking of risks. I assure the representatives of unionism with whom we are currently in negotiations that this Irish Government has courage and is ready to take risks.
I also assure everyone on this island and in Britain that we are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to reach a settlement. I know the British Prime Minister and his colleagues in Government share this commitment and, despite our recent disagreement, both Governments are continuing to work closely and constructively together to achieve the settlement that has eluded so many generations of Irish and British politicians.