Gay Mitchell
Ceist:26 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the situation in relation to the Northern peace process. [11985/99]
Priority Questions. - Northern Ireland Issues.
The over-riding priority of the Government remains the earliest possible implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects. We are working closely with the British Government and the political parties in Northern Ireland to achieve this. In the year since the Agreement was concluded, we have seen considerable progress in the implementation process.
The institutional, equality and human rights aspects of the Agreement were passed into law at Westminster last November. On 16 February, the Assembly approved the report of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister on the number and demarcation of Government Departments, which the Executive will oversee. On 8 March, four supplementary international agreements, providing for the establishment of the North-South Ministerial Council, the six all-island implementation bodies, the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the British-Irish Council, were signed in Dublin by the Secretary of State and myself. These agreements were approved by, and the legislation arising from them was passed in, the Oireachtas and at Westminster later that week.
Work on the implementation of other aspects of the Agreement is also continuing. The Human Rights Commission is up and running in the North. The legislation to establish a human rights commission in this jurisdiction will be introduced in the current session of the Oireachtas. The Patten Commission on the future of policing, the Criminal Justice Review and the International Commission on Decommissioning are all continuing with their work.
All the necessary provisions are, therefore, now in place for the institutions under the Agreement to go live once the current impasse over the formation of the Executive has been resolved. The Government has had in recent weeks, including yesterday, an intensive series of valuable bilateral, multilateral and round table meetings in Belfast with the political parties. The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have also been in constant contact, including holding meetings in London with the main pro-Agreement parties. It is likely there will be further meetings at ministerial level this week.
Additional Information.As I have consistently emphasised, the key to resolving the current impasse lies in the building up of trust and confidence on all sides to enable people to take the steps that are needed. A solution can only be found if everyone demonstrates flexibility and a willingness to move from their present positions. I welcome, therefore, the growing level of direct contact and dialogue between the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Féin and am hopeful that these discussions can help in finding an agreed solution.
I am convinced that the pro-Agreement parties are totally committed to finding an honourable resolution of the impasse, leading to the early establishment of the executive. All are also anxious that we move forward sooner rather than later. That is equally the position of the two Governments. We simply cannot afford to allow matters drift toward the summer, with the potential for outside events to undermine support for the Agreement.
No one underestimates the challenge we face in completing the implementation of the Agreement. I remain hopeful that, with determination and goodwill all round and building on the considerable progress already achieved, the outstanding difficulties can be successfully overcome.
Will the Minister agree it is disappointing and unacceptable that the bodies of missing persons is being used as a type of chess piece by the provisional movement to be introduced in some sort of hopeful way when it suits it and it wants good publicity and then put on the backburner? There is something particularly distasteful about this. Will the Minister join me in putting on the record his condemnation of this approach by the provisionals? Furthermore, will the Minister agree that whereas it is true that decommissioning is not a precondition in the Good Friday Agreement, it is a condition? It is stated in the Agreement that by this time next year arms will have been decommissioned. Implicit in that is that the process for decommissioning will have commenced before now. Will the Minister outline the steps he is taking to make it clear to the provisional movement that this House and the people North and South who voted for the Agreement are clear in their minds that there is no place for the gun in politics and that we expect these weapons to be decommissioned as a condition, if not a precondition, in the Good Friday Agreement?
I strongly support the Deputy's view that there is no place for the gun in Irish politics. As has been said elsewhere, there cannot be an armed peace. As far as decommissioning is concerned, we accept, as the Deputy rightly points out, that there are no preconditions to decommissioning. The Agreement does not contain a precondition that there must be a start to decommissioning before Sinn Féin can take its place in the executive. Given the size of its mandate and under the terms of the Agreement, Sinn Féin is entitled, as the Deputy is aware, to two places in the executive. It is equally a reality – I believe I answered this question on a number of occasions in the House recently – that the UUP has been interpreting the Agreement in a different way. Its understanding is that participation by Sinn Féin in the executive requires a resolution to the decommissioning issue.
This Government has to face and overcome two realities. We have got thus far by finding solutions with which all sides can live and we have to do the same in regard to the current impasse. I have always said that decommissioning has to happen and that there can be no place for weapons in a democratic and peaceful Ireland, as the Deputy pointed out. The issue now, however, is one of timing and interpretation – how we get from the present to a point where all the guns are gone and what must happen as we proceed along that route. I agree with Seamus Mallon on this issue that only an inclusive solution to the current difficulty will work and that it is only through the Agreement and its implementation that decommissioning will happen. It simply will not occur otherwise.
In relation to what has been happening in the recent past, there have been visits by me and the Minister of State, with the Taoiseach, to Downing Street where most, if not all, of the pro-Agreement parties were present, visits by the Minister of State to Stormont over recent weeks—
The time for this question has now expired. Under the rules of the House we must proceed to Question No. 27.
I would like the record to show that I also wanted to ask a question about Drumcree.
This is a farce.
We must proceed to Question No. 27. We cannot vary the rules for any particular question.