Vol. 474 No. 5
1 Mr. R. Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will give the Government's considered response to the North report; the action, if any, being taken following publication to ensure there is no repetition of some of the events of the 1996 marching season; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3336/97]
The issue of contentious parades has for many years been the source of tension and conflict in Northern Ireland. At first sight the issue appears to be a simple one concerning the need for agreement on parade routes between those who wish to march and those who regard parades as unwelcome. The parades issue has become a repository for a whole range of complex and deeply held feelings on the part of both the Unionist and Nationalist communities. The outcome of a contentious parade is now measured by both sides in terms of their political hopes, fears and aspirations. That the parades issue should be so considered has made its resolution a profoundly more difficult and complex task.
Dr. Peter North and his colleagues, the Rev. John Dunlop and Fr. Oliver Crilly, clearly went about their task in a thorough and considered way, on the basis of widespread consultation and sounding of public opinion. Their report deserves to be taken very seriously as a means of coming to terms with the problem of contentious marches, whose capacity to damage the whole society is now so amply demonstrated.
The Government does not underestimate the difficulty of this task. The review has endorsed the widely held notion that the parades issue is a microcosm of the political problems of Northern Ireland. Identity, tradition, rights and responsibilities are deeply interwoven into the parades issue. It will require political courage, openness and a degree of generosity from both sides to avoid the bleak consequences of another summer of discontent. Urgent action is required by all those most directly concerned if this prospect is to be avoided.
The Government has also made clear its belief that the impact of what transpired at Drumcree and the Lower Ormeau Road last July went far beyond the question of parades. It precipitated a collapse in Nationalist confidence in the rule of law, in the willingness of central authority to enforce it, and in the RUC.
The Government has approached the recommendations of the Independent Review of Parades and Marches with these considerations very much in mind. We support the broad thrust of the report as moving essentially in the right direction.
The core recommendation of the North review is the establishment of an Independent Parades Commission to facilitate local agreement and, where that has not proven possible, to issue a determination in regard to the conditions to be imposed, if any, on a contentious parade. The issues surrounding contentious parades can vary depending on the nature of the parade itself and the locality through which it seeks to pass. Bringing independent arbitration to the particularities of each contentious parade is a practical and sensible suggestion. In facilitating dialogue and offering the possibility of independent judgment, this recommendation, if acted upon, will create an opportunity to begin to defuse the fears, misconceptions and mistrust which often underlie the parades issue.
The Government is considering the details of the report, whose main text runs to more than two hundred pages. In the near future I will meet representatives of the communities and residents groups most directly concerned with the parades issue and will have the opportunity of further assessing the prospects for this year's marching season. Three important factors are, however, immediately apparent.
The first is that the North review was at pains not only to present what it believed to be the best approach but also to establish what was the most favoured approach among the people in Northern Ireland. It has also published the findings of the public attitude surveys which it commissioned and 88 per cent of those surveyed supported negotiated accommodation. Failing that, 79 per cent overall supported a binding decision by a third party. The most popular choice for what that third party should be was an independent body.
Second, the review's recommendations are presented as a package. The commission's formal role in promoting mediation is presented as the first step in an integral sequence. If mediation fails to establish local agreement, the review's authors have recommended that the commission, having consulted widely, will determine whether and what conditions might be imposed. While the Government notes the concerns expressed about the manner in which the commission's determinations may be reversed and will pursue these through the appropriate channels, this does not detract from the inherent value of the core recommendation that contentious parade routes be subject to formal mediation, consultation and determination, backed up by the force of law and the necessary political will to enforce it.
The third point is that the ability of the proposed Parades Commission to resolve the parades issue depends on the degree of support it enjoys from the authorities. Profound questions were raised by the reversal of the original decision that the Orange Order was not to march down the Garvaghy Road. Many within the Nationalist community began to doubt whether the RUC was either willing or able to withstand the pressures exerted by the community from which most of its officers come. Until Northern Ireland has a police force which reflects in its composition and ethos the society it seeks to police, these doubts will remain.
If the determinations of the Parades Commission were to be defied as effectively as the rule of law was in July 1996, then its authority would be seriously, possibly fatally, undermined. Its ability to act effectively as a mediator depends in large part on the credibility and substainability of its eventual determinations. Should its determinations be overturned regularly through appeal, reconsideration or through the decisions of a senior police officer on the day, then its authority will be correspondingly diminished. If these determinations are not implemented, then the deeply troubling question arises as to the alternative.
In short, the Government believes the recommendations of the North review should be implemented now. The people of Northern Ireland want a change in the manner in which parades are handled and the North review has made sensible and workable recommendations arrived at after extensive consultation and consideration.
Both the Taoiseach and I have urged the British Government to act on the North review. We have not been encouraged by the British Government's indication that it will begin only a partial implementation of the review's recommendations despite the widespread support for them at Westminster.
I will raise our concerns in this regard with Sir Patrick Mayhew when I meet him later today. I assure the Deputy we will leave no avenue unexplored in our efforts to ensure that the bleak expectations so widely shared about this coming marching season are not realised.
Surely the nub of the problem is addressed in the Tánaiste's last points. The report is welcome and I thank Dr. North and his colleagues. In the main it has some good recommendations but the problem is that the British Government will sit on it, despite our Government pressing for urgent action. This island cannot withstand another rerun of Drumcree and all that was involved with that. What argument is the Tánaiste putting to the British Government in trying to get the urgency of the situation across? Taking the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Anglo-Irish Conference and other issues into consideration, this matter must override any electoral concerns the British Government has in the dying days of its administration, propped up as it is by the Ulster Unionist Party.
Any action possible must be taken to avoid what we saw last summer. Trust was being built, as were new relationships between parties in Northern Ireland, and that was undermined substantially last year by the incidents at Drumcree. We have conveyed our view to the British Government and I will discuss this with the Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew, this evening. We will press the British Government to do everything possible to defuse the tensions that exist now in relation to the marching season, which is two months away. The parades issue must be given the political priority it deserves and we will give it priority in discussions that start this evening.
Deputy Burke will remember from his time in the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference that the parades issue is a priority item on the agenda on an ongoing basis.
I accept that it is an item on the conference agenda on an ongoing basis and rightly so.
I welcome the report in the main, though there are some defects. In his meetings with the Secretary of State will the Tánaiste address the lack of attention to minority rights evident in the report and the commission? I welcome the idea of a third party intermediary making decisions on the parades and marches. Does the Tánaiste agree that the RUC and the British Government should retain a veto in the light of last year's events? The RUC made a decision that the march on the Garvaghy Road should not take place but that decision was changed. What is the benefit of the commission if there is such a power of veto?
We have welcomed the general thrust of the North report. However, concerns have been expressed, which I share, that the determinations of the commission may be overturned by the Secretary of State or after reconsideration by the commission. The Chief Constable of the RUC may appeal a determination before a parade takes place and the senior officer on the ground may make operational decisions which run contrary to the determinations. This is a weakness in the arrangements and we will discuss these matters with the British Government. It is the most substantial concern we have about the report, although its general thrust is good. However, serious difficulties might arise at operational level. We wish to avoid any recurrence of the way decisions were taken in Drumcree last year.
With regard to Drumcree, the Garvaghy Road and the Ormeau Road the Taoiseach has made it clear that he will not interfere in the issue of the parade routes. No Irish Government has done so despite the fact that the issue arises regularly. Will the Tánaiste make it clear that the Oireachtas is of the view that there should not be a repeat of the demonstration of supremacy along the Garvaghy Road, given that alternative routes are available and that there are already up to 50 other commemorative parades in Portadown? The parade on the Garvaghy Road is nothing but a demonstration of supremacy and its residents are entitled to their human rights.
A parade on the Ormeau Road does not give the authorities an entitlement to lock people into their own homes. The first of the parades will be on Easter Monday which is only a few weeks away. Residents of these areas have a basic right of movement to and from their own homes. If the Taoiseach is not prepared to make this point, will the Tánaiste do so? We recognise the right of the majority to march. Out of the 3,000 or so parades only 20 or 30 are contentious. Will the Tánaiste make a statement on behalf of the Nationalist people of Northern Ireland to the effect that their rights cannot be downtrodden?
In regard to the fears that exist in Northern Ireland, it is vital that a process is undertaken whereby, through mutual respect for rights on both sides of the community, solutions are reached, just as Mr. John Hume brought about a resolution in Derry last year. Where there is a willingness to do so and where there is trust and confidence we can find solutions. The respect for mutual rights is central to the issue. We have made our views known in this regard and, as I said, I will discuss this matter with the Secretary of State.
It behoves us and the political leadership in Northern Ireland to be helpful in this matter and not to exacerbate already difficult situations. I hope such leadership will be shown. The parades will start in less than two months and time is of the essence. I hope that on the basis of the North report, which is sound and sensible, we may avoid the problems which arose last summer.
