Joe Higgins
Ceist:9 Mr. Higgins (Dublin West) asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent contacts with the political parties in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3115/02]
Ceisteanna – Questions. - Northern Ireland Issues.
Michael Noonan
Ceist:10 Mr. Noonan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on recent developments in the Northern Ireland peace process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4083/02]
Michael Noonan
Ceist:11 Mr. Noonan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent contacts with the political parties in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4085/02]
Ruairí Quinn
Ceist:12 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the matters discussed and conclusions reached at his meeting on 31 January 2002 with the SDLP and Deputy First Minister, Mark Durkan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4161/02]
Trevor Sargent
Ceist:13 Mr. Sargent asked the Taoiseach if he will report on recent meetings he has had with the Northern Ireland political parties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4486/02]
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Ceist:14 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on recent developments in the peace process. [5598/02]
Ceist:
116 Dr. Upton asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent discussions with the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. [6051/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 14, inclusive, and 116 together.
Together with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, I met Prime Minister Blair and Secretary of State Reid in Downing Street on Monday last. We reviewed the political situation in Northern Ireland and the progress generally in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement as well as the elements of the package agreed at Weston Park last July.
In addition to the need for further decommissioning, which remains an indispensable part of implementing the Agreement, we discussed the appointment of a judge of international standing to undertake a thorough investigation of allegations of collusion by the security forces in a number of serious cases, including the murders of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. We also discussed progress in the area of policing and the encouraging work to date of the Policing Board. Follow up on a number of other areas, including demilitarisation, was also reviewed. We also had an opportunity to discuss parades as well as the ongoing criminal justice review.
The meeting in Downing Street also focused on the upcoming European Council meeting in Barcelona as well as EU issues generally and particularly the Convention on the Future of Europe which begins its work in the next few weeks. The Government's continuing concerns regarding Sellafield were also raised with the Prime Minister.
I also met the Deputy First Minister and leader of the SDLP, Mark Durkan, the deputy leader, Bríd Rodgers and Alex Attwood, an SDLP nominee to the Policing Board, in Government Buildings on Thursday, 31 January 2002. We discussed the work of the Policing Board and its role in relation to the Ombudsman's report into the investigation of the Omagh bombing. Our discussions also focused on the work of the North-South institutions and how they might be improved, particularly through increasing co-operation, North and South, as well as the criminal justice review. As part of ongoing contacts with the political parties in Northern Ireland, I also met the Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams this morning. I very much welcome the recent report of the Policing Board on the Omagh investigation. The board has given a detailed, measured response to the issues raised by the ombudsman and the McVicker report, and that response deserves careful consideration.
I also welcome the fact that both the ombudsman and the Chief Constable support the recommendations of the board and I hope that the Omagh relatives will also be able to place their trust in the board's recommendations. I look forward to a close working relationship between the gardaí, the external investigation officer and the assistant chief constable to be appointed in an oversight role.
This has been a very difficult issue for the Policing Board and reaching an agreed outcome represents a significant achievement. The board deserves great credit for resolving complex, sensitive issues with authority for the benefit of policing and the community as a whole. I hope that the new structure of the investigation will help achieve the objective we all want – to bring those who perpetrated this awful crime to justice.
Has any progress been made towards securing further acts of decommissioning? Did the Taoiseach discuss this with the British Prime Minister and was it discussed at his meeting with Mr. Adams this morning?
As I said in my reply, it is an issue that is on the agenda. I hope we can continue to progress on all issues, including this one. It is an important issue and, as always, if we can keep moving forward on all aspects, then I think we can make progress. There is nothing imminent of which I am aware but then I would not be. There is a commitment to engagement with General de Chastelain and a commitment to continue to deal with this issue as part of a process without putting it up in lights and creating difficulties for everybody involved. As regards all of the issues – decommissioning, demilitarisation, OTRs and the exiled – there is a commitment on the part of all parties to try to move on and to stick to the commitments entered into.
In the course of his discussions with Prime Minister Blair, was the position of OTRs – people on the run who are suspects and will possibly be charged with violent crimes of one kind or another in relation to the political troubles in Northern Ireland – raised? Will any changes or extensions of amnesties in regard to OTRs be extended to people here whom the Garda Síochána are seeking to apprehend or to have returned? Have they been included in the overall proposal? In order to encourage decommissioning, will OTRs be given an amnesty? I ask the Taoiseach, in the context of his discussion with Mr. Gerry Adams, whether any movement by the two Governments in relation to OTRs being sought by the security forces would equally apply to people the Provisional IRA and the republican movement have expelled unilaterally from their own communities in Northern Ireland and, in some cases, in the South.
The answer to the first question is, yes. I discussed in detail the issue of OTRs which has been around for a considerable length of time. It is hoped that we can reach a conclusion on this. There are problems in the British administration system, in British law and in British legislation dealing with this. Some progress has been made and some cases have been dealt with on an administrative basis. I went through that process with Prime Minister Blair and Secretary of State John Reid to try to see how we can best deal with it; I think there is a commitment to try to do that. Linked to that – I raised this with Mr. Adams today as well – is the question of people who were exiled. That is also a big issue. I refer to people who were exiled to the Republic or exiled off the island completely. There certainly is an attempt to—
Is "exiled" a euphemism for being threatened with having one's life taken if one did not agree to leave?
It is usually 24 hours. The question of exiles is an outstanding issue on which there have been representations from many of those people who still have relatives both North and South. To get completion on the issues, I am committed to trying to resolve the issue of OTRs as I think is everybody in this House. To be fair to everybody, one cannot really argue that case without arguing for those known as "the exiles".
In the course of his meetings with the political parties in the North of Ireland, did the Taoiseach seek to extend the range of areas already agreed for cross-Border co-operation, including the delivery of health and education services where the potential for cross-Border co-operation is both obvious and required on both sides of the Border, not least in the Border counties and the constituency I represent?
The co-operation in the health and education areas and in most areas even outside the normal areas of the implementation bodies, the North-South bodies, is working quite well. Many initiatives have been researched, many proposals have been put in place and many concepts have already been enacted to extend this. It is something with which the Assembly is increasingly anxious to co-operate and with which the Government is prepared to deal. There are many individual initiatives which are worthy of support on an all-Ireland basis.
The time for Taoiseach's questions has expired but I will allow two brief questions – one from Deputy Deenihan and one from Deputy Jim Higgins.
The Taoiseach more or less mentioned what I was going to ask him. In the course of his talks with Mr. Blair and other political leaders, did the discussion range across the issue of cross-community and cross-Border co-operation outside that which occurs at governmental level? While the Good Friday Agreement is working in Stormont, it is certainly not working in the Ardoyne and in other places. What proposals, if any, have the Taoiseach and the British Government to promote more inter-community and cross-community activity, co-operation and communication and cross-Border co-operation at non-governmental levels?
(Mayo): The Taoiseach mentioned that one of the issues discussed was Sellafield. Did the Taoiseach raise the manner in which the British Government has again flouted the guidelines, rules and agreement in relation to accuracy of information supplied by allowing quantities of radioactive spent fuel far in excess of that agreed between the RPII and the Sellafield authorities to be processed? I refer to spent fuel from Scot land and Germany far in excess of the guidelines and amounts agreed and set down by the various court hearings in terms of the provision of accurate information to the authorities here.
In reply to Deputy Deenihan, there are a number of initiatives, through the Assembly and the Government, the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and the North-South bodies, which try to generate cross-community support. There are many others, NGO related or voluntary, for example, the Ireland Fund, where there is direct involvement in these initiatives. At recent meetings with officials we have been examining areas such as north and east Belfast where there are large communities which, regardless of sectarian difficulties or from what side of the divide they come, experience social problems, lack of resources or investment, and have been starved of any kind of employment for two generations. We need to try to build some kind of cross-community co-operation in these areas because, as long as high unemployment and other ongoing difficulties continue, people can get sucked into sectarianism, paramilitarism and so on. There is concern that areas where people suffer social difficulty tend to have ongoing problems while others move on and are quite successful.
In reply to Deputy Higgins, we discussed the MOX plant and, particularly, the issues surrounding it, our stated position on UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the aspects of it that we do not believe the British are fulfilling. I have outlined our position on moving ahead in the autumn with the arbitration system, which will be a big legal effort for us, but one we must undertake.
We are also examining the EU aspects of this and other provisions, because many of them come within the competence of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. I am not confident that we will ever get an inspectorate that will comply with the arrangements because conflict is ongoing and, no matter what is set down at a meeting, we are back to the old position by the time we meet again. The law of the sea, in so far as it affects the marine in the context of the mixed oxide plant, not to mind the other aspects of Sellafield, is something this country needs to have defined. Even if this takes a considerable amount of resources and time, it is in our interests to pursue it.