Mary Harney
Ceist:12 Miss Harney asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will give details of the representations, if any, made to him in relation to the parades issue in Northern Ireland. [8957/97]
Written Answers. - Northern Ireland Marching Season.
As I indicated to the Dáil on previous occasions, I have had meetings with representatives of the communities and resident groups most directly concerned with the parades issue. I have also discussed the issue on a number of occasions recently with the Secretary of State, Sir Patrick Mayhew, including at the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference on 12 March. The issue is discussed on an ongoing basis through the framework of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Many of the contacts which we maintain with different groups in Northern Ireland reflect also the very widespread and deep concern at the prospects for this year's marching season.
Despite the grave damage done to Northern Ireland in terms of confidence in the rule of law, community relations and economic development by the events surrounding Drumcree last year, there appears again the prospect of further confrontation over the marching issue. Both Governments, responsible leaders and all those in both communities most directly involved must redouble their efforts to avoiding a repetition of the confrontation and disturbances last year.
The Government believes that avoiding a repetition of the disaster of last year can best be done through local dialogue and agreement, based on mutual respect and the mutual accommodation of the respective rights and heritage of both traditions.
Courageous steps have been taken by some of those most directly involved to pursue local agreement and genuine progress is being made, however, tentative. I reiterate that it is the Government's earnest hope that local agreement will yet emerge as a factor to ease tension and point the way forward toward a broader resolution of contentious parades.
The Government hopes that the recently formed Parades Commission can play a meaningful role in mediating agreements. The delay in granting it the power to make determinations on contentious parade routes, the core recommendations of the North report, has been disappointing to those, including the Government, who support the implementation of the North recommendations in full. Unless and until that power is granted to the Commission, it cannot fulfil the roles of education, mediation andarbitration which were envisaged by Sir Peter North and his colleagues as elements of an integrated overall approach.
Should local agreement fail to resolve certain contentious parades, it is vitally important in those instances that the rule of law is resolutely and impartially upheld. Only when this occurs can some of the damage done to nationalist confidence in the rule of law by the role of the authorities, including the RUC, at Drumcree last year be repaired. I will be stressing, in our contacts with the British Government, the importance of ensuring that the rule of law is seen at all times to prevail on this issue.
I hope to discuss this and other aspects of the marching season with the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland shortly after the incoming British Government takes office.