Mary Harney
Question:1 Miss Harney asked the Taoiseach the response, if any, he has had to date to his invitation to the various political parties in Northern Ireland to participate in direct talks with the Government. [9894/95]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Northern Ireland Peace Process.
Mary Harney
Question:2 Miss Harney asked the Taoiseach the response, if any, he has had from any of the political parties in Northern Ireland to his invitation for bilateral talks with the Irish Government. [10232/95]
Bertie Ahern
Question:3 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach whether he has received any replies to his invitation to northern political leaders for talks. [10247/95]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, together.
As I indicated in the House on 24 May, I have deliberately not set a time-frame for responses by the Northern Ireland parties to my invitations regarding bilateral talks. It is important that the parties concerned should have as much time and space as they need to consider their responses. For the same reason, it would be counterproductive to report regularly on the state of play regarding responses to these invitations which, in any event, issued only very recently.
Naturally, I would hope that bilateral talks could get under way in the reasonably near future. We have a unique opportunity to shape a durable political settlement and the bilateral talks which I have proposed would make an important contribution to this process.
Does the Taoiseach believe that the substantive talks must await participation by all parties, including Sinn Féin?
It is important that we move as soon as possible to a point where all parties participate on the same basis. Obviously certain matters, most notably the decommissioning of arms, must be dealt with before we reach that point. As I said in the House in response to questions from Deputy Ahern and others, I am not keen to develop semantic Chinese walls between one type of talks and another type of talks or to make the issue more complicated than it needs to be.
I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I support his decision to issue invitations to the political parties in the North. I do not want to ask him questions on this matter every week as this is not useful but will he outline how he proposes, under Strand II, to encourage the parties to talk? I imagine that some of them will find it difficult to reply in the short term and perhaps the Taoiseach could avail of this opportunity to expand on how the talks will be developed over the next few months.
I have deliberately not set any precise agenda for these discussions. The agenda is open and the parties can have what they want discussed with the Irish Government as the first set of items on it. In other words, I want to make the invitation as open as possible in so far as the parties participating are concerned. I have not specified that this is a Strand II exercise; it is simply an invitation by the Irish Government to all the relevant parties in Northern Ireland to participate in bilateral discussions. This is probably the best way to proceed. As I said on a previous occasion, one cannot make progress on Strand II without making progress on Strand I as Strand II feeds into Strand I and vice versa, and Strand III is also relevant. I do not regard this initiative as separate from the other initiatives but it is important to do it. Part of the value of the exercise is that it requires the parties in preparing for the meeting with the Irish Government to address specifically a number of issues in a way that hopefully will be constructive.
Does the Taoiseach envisage these talks taking place before the marching season or will they take place during the autumn?
I hope they will take place as soon as possible, and that is my objective. I have not thought of a date in the context of the marching season. Obviously the parties have other agendas on their minds, for example, the by-election in one constituency which I am sure is taking up some of their attention. I hope that the talks will take place as soon as possible. In the event of their taking place during a period when traditional demonstrations take place I hope those demonstrations will be carried out in such a restrained and considered manner that they will not cause any problem. Any demonstrations should be contemplated with an eye to community relations as the number one priority.
Is the submission of presentations on the Framework Document by the Northern parties part of the agenda? Some time ago the Taoiseach stated that they should present any views they had on the Framework Document rather than try to amend it. Will this be part of the talks process?
I am not looking for their views on the Framework Document or any other document; I am looking for their views. The important thing is to get their views and to open the dialogue. If we are too prescriptive as to the framework and form of the discussions then the rest of the discussions will not get off on the right foot. That is why I have deliberately framed the invitation and the agenda in as open a fashion as possible.
The decommissioning of arms has caused a logjam, even in regard to the Taoiseach's invitations which I hope will be accepted. Will the Taoiseach agree that President Clinton has gone out on a limb and come under severe political pressure so as to bring all the parties together? Will he also agree that the paramilitaries owe it to the President and the Ambassador to make a substantial gesture, whether it is the decommissioning of arms or whatever, to enable the parties come together? What is the opinion on the decommissioning of explosives which could never be regarded as weapons of defence?
I thank the Deputy for his very constructive intervention. The questions he has put are useful as an expression of his views on these matters. Obviously the objective is to achieve the decommissioning of both offensive arms and those which could be described as being potentially defensive in certain circumstances. We want to get all these arms out of the equation. However, I do not regard this issue as a barrier to the discussions I have initiated. I have issued invitations to parties to come and see me and I am not putting any conditions in their way. This is not to say that I do not recognise, as the Deputy does, that the decommissioning of arms issue has to be dealt with.
I strongly agree that President Clinton has gone out on a limb. He has been consistently courageous and imaginative in the way in which he has dealt with this issue. He has not used this issue in a traditional Irish-American political card mode; rather he has sought to be constructive and fair minded. For example, his statement at the Washington Conference was very balanced and it showed an appreciation of the concerns of both communities in Northern Ireland. This is a very important point. Obviously the Irish Government has urged him to go in that direction but he has done so willingly and freely himself.
The Taoiseach has the support of the House in asking the parties in the North to participate in a debate on an open agenda in a friendly way. I would like to think no party would refuse that invitation. Is it the Taoiseach's intention to have a meeting, either formal or informal, with the British Prime Minister in Paris at the weekend about the peace process?
I am not absolutely certain yet whether we will be able to have a meeting. He is arriving in Paris a little later than I and is leaving a little earlier than I and it may not be possible for us to get together for a bilateral meeting. We are working on it. If we can have a meeting we will. I would like to have a meeting with the Prime Minister but it may not prove possible on this occasion. As the House is well aware such meetings with the British Prime Minister can be arranged quite easily and there is no great problem with arranging them.
Will the Taoiseach list the parties he has invited to participate in these talks? If the Taoiseach has invited the PUP and the UDP to talks will he undertake to listen to what they have to say in relation to the whole issue of prisoners which they feel has not been addressed by the British Government in the same way as it has been treated by the Government and the previous Government in this State.
The parties who have been invited are: the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP, the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party, the Ulster Democratic Party and the Progressive Unionist Party. I will listen to any views the Ulster Democratic Party or the Progressive Unionist Party wish to put to me in regard to prisoners. It is an important issue in the peace process. I believe that peace is sufficiently firmly established now for it to be possible for the British Government to consider making the necessary legal changes to increase the rate of remission of sentences. There is a legal barrier that they cannot go beyond a certain rate of remission without making changes in the law. It is quite clear that the circumstances now exist where that change should be made. In my discussions in Westminster where I met various politicians — not just Government politicians but also Opposition politicians — I made that case quite strongly. It is a case that should be made in any opportunity that one has for interchange with the members of the House of Commons.