I move amendment No. 1:
In page 3, line 14, to delete "of 24 months" and substitute "up to and including the 30th day of June, 1999".
I have already covered the arguments for the proposal in my contribution on Second Stage, so I will quickly revisit some of the details. I noted with concern the Taoiseach's concluding remarks on Second Stage regarding the 30 June deadline. I hope an interpretation is not put on his references to being sensible and his remarks about what might happen after 30 June, that there was not a resolve on the part of the Irish and British Governments to insist on 30 June as the deadline they have declared. There has been tremendous frustration and anger in many quarters at the failure so far to implement the Agreement as agreed between both Governments and all parties on Good Friday last year and since endorsed by the overwhelming mass of the electorate, both North and South.
There was a requirement to establish the shadow Executive in July last year. The North-South Ministerial Council was to have met and completed its work by the end of October last year. The d'Hondt mechanism was to have been triggered by 10 March this year and then 29 March and 2 April this year, Good Friday, became more missed deadlines. It has clearly been the case in the past that, when people are focused on set deadlines and not on distant and imprecise ones, they apply themselves to the work in hand, endeavour to meet the deadline and reach the type of agreement required to achieve the necessary solutions.
I am concerned the signal given by the Bill and the Taoiseach's earlier commentary is that 30 June is not the definitive deadline the two Governments indicated it is. It is important for all parties to the ongoing search for a break in the impasse that 30 June is clearly and emphatically stated for what it already has been declared, namely a deadline and an absolute requirement for the triggering of d'Hondt, the setting up of the Executive and the movement towards the establishment the North-South Ministerial Council and implementation bodies.
That is critical and that is why I tabled the amendment to delete the words "of 24 months" and substitute them with the words "up to and including the 30th day of June, 1999". To do otherwise is to invite further procrastination, delaying and obstructionism which have amounted to the tactics of the Ulster Unionist Party over many months past. A mistake is being made and one which will certainly be grasped by those who wish to see this process run into the ground. For those who take that view, there is already in the establishment of the Assembly in the North all they would have wished for, and now all that is needed is for the more difficult elements which must be faced to be set aside or binned. That is completely unacceptable.
The amendment is reasonable, rational and deserves the support of the Government. It should adopt it and I ask that it be supported. In the event it is not to be supported, I will not oppose the Bill as initiated. However, I urge in the spirit of what I have said earlier on Second Stage and what I say now that people recognise the seriousness of the moment and importance of the opportunity and agree the amendment.