Peace process in crisis
The British-Irish Agreement Bill was passed in the Dáil this week. It
establishes the legal basis for the institutions to be established
under the Good Friday Agreement. We carry here the text of the speech
on the Bill by Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín ``O'Caoláin.
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The Ulster Unionist Party, for the past eleven months, has been
allowed to elevate one element of the Good Friday Agreement above all
others. I must record disappointment that both governments have
indulged that party in its pretense that the entire Agreement hinges
upon a decommissioning gesture from the IRA.
Caoimhghín `` Caoláin TD.
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I welcome this Bill as an essential step in the implementation of the
Good Friday Agreement which was endorsed by 85% of the people of
Ireland last year.
We in Sinn Féin were a party to that Agreement; we recognised it as
an historic compromise for which all parties took political risks.
Not the least of those risks was taken by Sinn Féin. We accepted key
elements of the Good Friday Agreement which challenged political
positions that we had held for many years. We altered our party's
Constitution to allow attendance at an Assembly in the Six Counties;
we urged a Yes vote in the 32 Counties after a painful and
heart-searching internal debate and despite our reservations - shared
by broad sections of opinion on this island - about changes to
Articles Two and Three of the 1937 Constitution.
We see the Agreement as a vehicle for change in which we can all make
the journey towards a just and equal society in Ireland, leaving
behind the injustices of the past and the conflict which has arisen
out of them. This is not a final settlement and there are many
aspects of the Agreement, including the institutions which are
established in this Bill, which do not go far enough. The extent of
All-Ireland bodies is too limited in our view. We are concerned at
the minimising of their scope at the insistence of the Ulster
Unionist Party.
But like the other aspects of the Agreement these institutions can
be built upon as the historical, political and economic imperative
moves the divided parts of our island, and the divided sections of
our people, ever closer over time. It is up to all of us to create
that imperative.
If the Agreement as negotiated was being implemented then the
Executive, the All-Ireland Ministerial Council, the All-Ireland
Implementation Bodies, the British-Irish Council and the
British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference would all have been
established by now. Power could then have been transferred to those
bodies and to the Assembly tomorrow, March 10th. This could and
should have been the case.
I must record the disappointment and grave concern of myself and of
Sinn Féin that this deadline is being allowed to pass. I believe that
the Irish government should have taken a much stronger position,
insisting that the Agreement as negotiated be implemented in the
agreed timetable.
It is not talking up a crisis to state the plain fact that a crisis
now exists in the peace process. This crisis exists because the
Ulster Unionist Party, for the past eleven months, has been allowed
to elevate one element of the Good Friday Agreement above all others.
I say allowed because I must also record disappointment that both
governments have indulged that party in its pretense that the entire
Agreement hinges upon a decommissioning gesture from the IRA. This
false position was given expression in what can only be described as
a disgraceful editorial in the Irish Times of yesterday, 8 March,
which argued that it would be better that the entire Agreement should
founder than that decommissioning should not take place in the way
that it is being demanded by the unionists.
The decommissioning issue is being dealt with. It is as complex as
any of the other issues addressed in the Agreement. We in Sinn Féin
have fulfilled and will continue to fulfil our commitment in that
regard. Everyone needs to recognise the duplicity of the simplistic
approach which talks of decommissioning gestures. You only have to
remember the theatrical and choreographed handover of weapons by the
Loyalist Volunteer Force some months ago. Armed members of this same
force appeared before RTE cameras last weekend and threatened to end
their ceasefire. The so-called decommissioning carried out by the LVF
was valueless, a propaganda stunt by an organisation whose ceasefire
itself is unstable.
Deputy Quinn referred to opinion polls and the views of republicans.
I think I can reflect those views more accurately than any
interpretation of a particular opinion poll.
In nationalist and republican districts in the Six Counties the
decommissioning issue is seen in the context of increasing attacks
and threats from loyalists as referred to at Taoiseach's Questions
today, and of continuing revelations about decades of collusion
between British forces and loyalist paramilitaries. It is seen in
the context of over 130,000 licensed weapons in the unionist
community. It is seen in the context of the continuing siege of the
nationalist community on the Garvaghy Road. It is seen in the context
of an unchanged, heavily armed RUC and a British Army which may be
less visible in some areas but is still there in large numbers and
with all its infrastructure intact. I urge Deputies Quinn and Bruton
to come with me to South Armagh and to speak to the people there
about decommissioning under the din of helicopters and under the
shadow of dozens of hilltop posts, checkpoints and barracks.
People need to look beyond the unionist rhetoric about
decommissioning and look at the real motivation. The mask slipped
recently when both David Trimble and John Taylor spoke of moving
forward without Sinn Féin. Unionists look to the prospect of the
expulsion of Sinn Féin from the process, the breakdown of the broad
republican consensus in favour of the Agreement, the splitting of the
IRA from top to bottom. The sad reality is that many unionists, and
significant and powerful sections of the British military
establishment would relish such a prospect. They seek a defeat of
Irish republicanism, a defeat that could not be achieved through 30
years of conflict.
International Commission was established to deal with the issue
of decommissioning. Its work continues and Sinn Féin has worked with
it. The issue is not resolved but the lack of resolution of this
issue, like all the other issues in the Agreement which remain
unresolved, does not prevent the formation of the Executive now. What
is being allowed to prevent it is the lack of political will on the
part of the Ulster Unionist Party. I urge the Irish government not to
allow this to continue.
In spite of the negative political context in which this Bill comes
before us I believe that it represents a tremendously positive
development in the history of our country. It points to a new
political dispensation for all the people of Ireland. The failures of
the past - partition, sectarianism, one-party rule, repression - can
be set aside and we can begin a new era of equality. Let us cast
aside the obstacles and enter that new era.
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