I am glad to be addressing the Seanad and I welcome your decision to make provision for statements on the subject of Northern Ireland. The search for a peaceful and lasting settlement of the problem of Northern Ireland is without question one of the supreme challenges facing this country today. When, in our Programme for a Partnership Government, we remarked that "the future welfare of all the people of Ireland is overshadowed by the conflict in Northern Ireland", we meant precisely that.
All the people of Ireland, wherever they may happen to live on this island, are paying an insidious price for the prolongation of this dreadful conflict. Along with its direct human costs in terms of lives lost or ruined, there is the tragic waste of economic resources and capabilities, North and South. The bombs and bullets destroy not just human life and limbs; they also wreck our dreams and our hopes for the future.
Yesterday's news that an enormous haul of weaponry and explosives destined for the UVF had been seized by the British authorities was a chilling reminder of the threat posed by men of violence in both communities. There is no question but that these would have been used to inflict horrific death and injury on defenceless people. We are relieved at the seizure of this hideous consignment and grateful to those responsible for its interception.
Both the Irish and British Governments must work together to remove forever from this island and from the neighbouring island the sinister scourge of paramilitary violence. We must be ready to consider all options which offer a prospect of bringing the violence to an end on a basis consistent with our fundamental principles. In his Guildhall speech last week, the Prime Minister recognised that "there may now be a better opportunity for peace in Northern Ireland than for many years". He told his audience that the British Government are "now actively seeking a framework to deliver peace, stability and reconciliation". He warned that "all concerned will have to show courage, court unpopularity, break down old barriers and take risks". Speaking in the House of Commons three days later, the Prime Minister pointed out that "the right memorial to those who have been murdered is to make sure that no one else is murdered in future".
The Taoiseach and I strongly endorse these sentiments. We are encouraged by the indications that the search for a permanent end to violence and for a political settlement of the Northern Ireland conflict is now at the top of the British Government's list of priorities and will remain there for the foreseeable future. We believe that political leaders in Northern Ireland, whose communities have borne the brunt of this terrible violence, must show an equal sense of urgency and commitment.
Who can be blind to the desire for peace expressed by millions of ordinary people throughout these islands? They know instinctively that, to be meaningful, it must come on terms which do not infringe the basic principles of either Government or of either community in Northern Ireland but they believe, as the Government do, that this goal is attainable. Who can say that there is any more important goal towards which all political leaders in these islands should be striving?
There is, quite simply, no higher political or moral imperative. If there is in this generation an opportunity to secure lasting peace and stability for the generations to come, it must be seized by both Governments with all the resources of political imagination and courage which we possess. We must explore it rigorously and intensively and test its potential to the very limit. In that endeavour, we would hope to have the active support of all who believe in the political process and who wish to see the problems of Northern Ireland resolved by political means rather than by violence.
The two Governments have made clear that they are working together "in their own terms on the creation of a framework for peace, stability and reconciliation consistent with their international obligations and their wider responsibilities to both communities". That is the sole and proper responsibility of the two Governments. They should not be deflected from their duty in this regard because people choose for tactical reasons to misrepresent their position or to hang labels on the Governments' search for peace.
Peace established on the right terms will bring inestimable benefits for everyone. The efforts which the two Governments are making to explore the opening which may now exist are manifestly in the interests of all the people of these islands, regardless of political affiliation. No interest group should be allowed to impede in any way the possible attainment of lasting peace on terms which would respect fully the essential principles to which both Governments have repeatedly committed themselves.
Ordinary people in Britain and Ireland will find it very difficult to forgive any elected representatives who seek to undermine the process which is under way at present and which could potentially yield the prize of general agreement that divisions on this island, no matter how deep, can be addressed on an exclusively political and peaceful basis. Each passing day brings fresh evidence of the desperate desire for peace. In this part of Ireland, in the North and in Britain, people are signalling in different ways that they believe an opportunity for peace may be at hand and that they want it to be taken.
Last week, 160,000 people phoned in to two morning newspapers calling for peace. About two million people observed a minute's silence for peace last Thursday. People have had enough of the years of violence and wastage. They are crying out for an end to it and for a new beginning for themselves and for their children.
It is the responsibility of the two Governments to find ways of translating the people's expectations into reality. However difficult the challenge, we must work to create a framework which can facilitate lasting peace and satisfy the hopes of millions. This is a task which calls for political courage and statesmanship of a high order and which must transcend all short term or partisan considerations.
The Taoiseach has, from the very outset, underlined the Irish Government's view that the pursuit if a basis for peace will require courage from all concerned. Indeed, a readiness to take bold new steps in the search for peace and for political progress has been a consistent feature of the policies of this Government in relation to Northern Ireland. The responsibility to show courage and to take risks for peace does not rest with the Governments alone. It is of no less importance to the leaders of the constitutional political parties in Northern Ireland that they should respond to the present moment in ways which seek to calm the understandable fears which may arise rather than to exploit them.
Fears often arise needlessly from inadequate explanation, and indeed outright distortion, of the underlying issues. The task of true leadership, I believe, is to exercise a constructive and calming influence on the community at large, to do all possible to allay unfounded anxieties and to create a climate in which positive political progress can be achieved. That there can be no basis for the anxieties reported this week is clear from the successive reassurances provided by both the British and Irish Governments on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland.
The Irish Government have underscored in speech after speech, in statement after statement, our absolute commitment to the principle that there will be no change in the status of Northern Ireland without the consent of a majority of the people there. I have myself pointed out furthermore that our definition of consent includes a possible withholding of consent. I have made clear that there is no place in our thinking for coercion of any description, direct or indirect.
Northern Ireland's own history is vivid evidence of the futility of attempting to operate political arrangements which fails the test of widespread support. The future of this island will be determined not by one tradition seeking to impose its will on the other but by full and fair agreement between the two traditions which share it. For as long as the problem of Northern Ireland has been with us, there have been fears of one kind or another in each community there. Fear is embedded within the very fabric of Northern Ireland and that is a tragic reality with which we must all live.
The task of constitutional political leaders, as I see it, is to do all in their power to minimise its consequences and to allay unfounded anxieties by pointing to relevant reassurances and safeguards. Giving wider currency to unjustified fears is a betrayal of leadership responsibilities. It also reveals a failure of political courage. All of us have a role to play if the goal of peace is to be achieved. All of us must be willing to take political risks and, at a minimum, to delay judgement until the present efforts have reached a conclusion. All of us have a duty to respond to the deep public yearning for peace and to sustain, rather than to try to extinguish, the very real hopes that it may now be attainable.
Why should the people of Northern Ireland be condemned to the relentless continuation of the violence which has already destroyed so many lives, livelihoods and opportunities? Why should the people of Britain have to live under the ever lengthening shadow of that violence? Why should taxpayers in this jurisdiction have to bear the continuing horrendous cost of violence in Northern Ireland and its consequences in terms of lost economic opportunities?
Now is the time for bold and imaginative thinking in the search for a possible formula for peace. The two Governments must find a framework which will facilitate that objective without compromising our bedrock principles.
This is also a time for recognising that only a profound and radical balancing of the interests of the two traditions offers any hope of achieving a political solution to the problem of Northern Ireland. The tired old approaches which conceived a solution in exclusively internal terms have not — and cannot — work. The mistakes of the past should not be repeated. There will never be stability in a framework which does not address the need for agreement between Unionism and the Nationalist tradition in Ireland as a whole. An approach to the problem, which is exclusively or predominantly internal, is doomed to failure and a corresponding doubt must attach to the prospects of any political talks which proceed from that approach.
The goal of peace, stability and reconciliation to which the Prime Minister dedicated himself in his Guildhall speech will not be achieved without a deep and lasting accommodation which goes to the heart of all the relationships entangled in this problem.
I talked earlier of fears. I accept that the Unionist community have real fears about their position on the island. From the beginning of my involvement with the problem of Northern Ireland, I have set out to address those fears in various ways and to do everything in my power to allay them. The Taoiseach has done precisely the same. He has worked tirelessly to reassure Unionists of all descriptions of his personal goodwill towards them, his desire for dialogue with them and the readiness of the Government he leads to respond to their concerns in the context of an overall political settlement.
Prime Minister Major rightly emphasised the importance of the understanding which the Government has displayed for the rights and concerns of Unionists and of our willingness to reach out to them and to make constitutional change a part of an overall settlement.
I believe passionately in political dialogue as the means of resolving even the most entrenched conflicts. The Government's interest in meeting Unionist leaders for face-to-face dialogue has been signalled since the day we took office. I regret that the offer has not, so far, been taken up. I would like to think that, in direct contact with the Unionist leaders, we might succeed in persuading them of our goodwill towards them and our willingness to work with them and the British Government for a fully balanced agreement which would incorporate full protection and expression for both traditions in Ireland.
The need for all of us to resume together the search for a new beginning for all our relationships — the new beginning to which we committed ourselves on 26 March 1991 — is more urgent than ever before. The Taoiseach and I regard efforts to achieve a comprehensive political accommodation through dialogue and the search for an acceptable peace formula as complementary and in many ways interrelated. Progress must be achieved on all fronts and no potential area for agreement should be overlooked.
At the same time, we attach particular urgency to the pursuit of a framework for peace. Moreover, there is no doubt that the achievement of peace would utterly transform the political atmosphere and enhance to a very significant degree the prospects of achieving a successful outcome to renewed dialogue.
The Taoiseach and I are anxious to see a process of collective political talks resuming as soon as possible which will address the three central relationships and will aim at a fair, honourable and lasting settlement of the Northern Ireland problem. We very much hope that those parties in Northern Ireland who at present decline to participate in such talks will reconsider their position and join the two Governments and the other constitutional parties at the negotiating table in the very near future. Dialogue alone offers a way forward. There is no reason to fear dialogue — any more than there is to fear peace.
I believe strongly that, without a mobilisation of all the political forces on this island in the pursuit of an accommodation which all can support, the future for all of us and for our children will remain uncertain and threatening. Ultimate peace and security for all the people of Ireland can come only from a deep and comprehensive agreement between the two traditions on how to share the island which is our common home.