I will try to answer the Deputy's questions as quickly and as fully as I can. The outcome of the election makes matters more difficult. It is not easy, given the combinations that now exist, to form an inclusive, working Executive. We must deal with the democratic wishes of the people in Northern Ireland and try to achieve one, but it will certainly not be as straightforward as it would have been had it involved the UUP, SDLP, Sinn Féin and the pro-Agreement parties in general. A number of changes in the position since the election will make it difficult and not just the one factor that has been focused on, namely, the DUP.
More than 70% of the next Executive, if we can establish it, will comprise pro-Agreement candidates, which is a high percentage. All the opinion polls on the election, including RTE's extensive poll last week, show two thirds of the people in favour of devolution. All the parties are in favour of devolution, even if they differ on how it can be achieved.
The Government will attempt to engage in dialogue with all the parties. I hope that is possible. I have stated publicly that we will be glad to meet them as soon as possible. I have already been contacted by the SDLP and Sinn Féin with the aim of meeting as soon as possible, which we will do.
On this day four years ago, 2 December 1999, the institutions of the Agreement were signed. There was an agreement that there would be a review after four years, and this falls due today. Letters will be issued tomorrow or the next day to the parties. The review was for parties to reflect on the past four years and to give their views on the institutions and their workings. Even though it is coincidental, it will be useful. It is broad enough for people to be able to say almost anything. We will have to study their views and proceed to dialogue and discussion.
I hope some of that will begin before Christmas, but realistically, other than preliminary meetings, it is unlikely that the detailed work will begin before the new year. That is the realistic position. I look forward to a review because we will make progress if people take their business seriously and positively. The early indications suggest all the parties will.
I was asked about the positions of both the SDLP and Sinn Féin. I will deal with Sinn Féin first. It is a pity that some of the issues with which we have dealt for the past year or so could not have been brought forward more quickly. It has been more than a year since the act of completions paper, which both the Prime Minister, Mr. Blair and I supported, was produced. That is a long time ago.
The institutions collapsed because of alleged spying by Sinn Féin in Stormont. We were not able to make progress despite considered efforts in the spring and autumn. We achieved an act of decommissioning in the autumn but, unfortunately, the regulations surrounding that did not allow us to make the necessary progress. Although these regulations were known and the IRA representative and General John de Chastelain adhered to them, they were prohibitive and did not allow us to make the necessary progress. Much has been made of the allegation that I knew that and did not do anything about it. Unfortunately, I could not change the rules, nor was I engaged in the discussions with the IRA representative to enable them to be changed. I tried to get General John De Chastelain to change them, which he attempted to do last summer but for which he was not able to get agreement. This created a difficulty.
The SDLP has played an enormously constructive role in everything we have done over the years and especially since the spring of 1998. I am grateful for the work of Mark Durkan and his colleagues. They did not do as well as they would have liked, but they certainly did not do so badly, as neither did the UUP which increased its vote.
I do not accept the SDLP's position on being marginalised. I would like to be able to agree with it for the sake of agreeing but I cannot. I do not accept the argument. I do not want to get into an argument about this in the aftermath of the election, but for Deputy Rabbitte's information, the week before, representatives of the SDLP had an exclusive meeting with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Blair, the following week they met the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, and a few days later they met me. The party's argument does not stand up. The two hour meeting with the UUP and Sinn Féin at which I had recommended the SDLP's attendance was on a specific issue in which the SDLP had no part. I have already expressed the view that too much was made of it and it does not hold up.
I look forward to proceeding with the review. I hope the Democratic Unionist Party adopts an enabling, not a disabling, role. I will be as constructive as I possibly can and look forward to trying to deal with the party. I know its position has tended towards not meeting the Irish Government. However, it put forward four issues in the election. It said it wants an arrangement that would ensure stability, something with which I have no argument given the collapse of the institutions on four occasions during the lifetime of the agreement. It wants an accountable arrangement, something with which I have no difficulty, and also an efficient and effective arrangement. It left out the word "inclusive". If it adds that to its agenda, we can all work towards finding a solution.
To go back to the old days of ignoring other people's mandate and the fact of their election and denying that they have a role to play in an inclusive Assembly and Executive will cause major difficulties. I will not cause them but there will be no agreement from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, or the northern Nationalist and republican community. However, Mr. Robinson has said that he is prepared to work towards a resolution that would satisfy all communities – republican, Nationalist, loyalist and Unionist. On that basis we can all work to try to achieve it, and the quicker the better.
