The following is an edited version of the Leader of the Opposition's statement to the Dail yesterday
"THE Irish people regard the bombing in London last Friday night and the breakdown of the 17 month IRA ceasefire as an absolute tragedy," said the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern.
"The breakdown is a tragedy that should not and need not have, happened and that must not be, allowed to continue. The IRA hold sole responsibility for the renewed bombing. The impasse in the peace process is something for which we are all responsible.
All of us involved must learn from our mistakes. The peace process must be put back together again, if possible, before further tragedy occurs. In this House, we, must give the reasons why Sinn, Fein should go back to the IRA now and ask them to stop, before it is too late, before the renewed cancer of violence spreads to, Northern Ireland elsewhere."
His central theme was what needed to be done, and he would approach it through three topics (1), Our attitude to the London bombing and the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire (2) The lessons from the way the peace process had been handled over the past 17 months and (3) How we could best proceed to restore the integrity of the peace process, before further irreparable damage was done.
"The Irish peace process has been a magnificent achievement, of which Irish people at home and abroad have felt justly proud, and which has been greatly admired all over the world," he said. "Loyalists too, even if they define their nationality differently, have shared in that pride."
He went on "The peace process owes a great deal to the political courage and risk taking by leaders in both the Republican and Loyalist organisations as well as political leaders like John Hume and Albert Reynolds. Like many others of different political persuasions, I had come to admire the personal commitment and courage of many of the Republican and Loyalist leaders that I have come to know.
"I feel some sympathy for many of them in the difficult and awful predicament that they all now face. In particular, Gerry Adams deserves credit for persuading the IRA to accept a complete ceasefire and to make a definitive commitment to the peace process, even if they have now broken it. He should get some help consistent with democratic principles in helping to restore it, but this time it must really be for good."
He understood the argument that IRA leaders could not bind a future generation, and therefore hesitated to use the word permanent. But it was reasonable to expect that after one generation had been blighted by conflict, the coming generation would be given a full opportunity to see what peace and democratic politics could achieve over the next 25 years at least.
Virtually everyone in this country was horrified and appalled by the bombing of an office block in the East End of London, and by the accompanying statement that announced the end of the IRA ceasefire. Bombings by their nature, no matter what warnings were given, inflicted sudden death and injury on the civilian population in a way that could never be calculated in advance. Those who allowed or ordered them to be planted could justifiably be accused of a callous disregard for human life.
"I now come to the political aspects of the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire. The original IRA statement promised a complete cessation of military operations' and a definitive commitment to the success of the democratic process."
The IRA and Sinn Fein understood quite well that the commitment required of them, and which they gave, represented the equivalent of a permanent end to violence, even though the word `permanent' was not used. `Definitive' means in the dictionary `finally fixing or settling something', `conclusive'. It means that there can be no alteration of intent, no going back."
Mr Ahern said "I believe there are now enormous contradictions in the position of both the IRA and Sinn Fein. The IRA in the past had a reputation for keeping bits word. On August 31st, 1994, all asides of this House accepted the permanence of intent. I am very disappointed that the present IRA has not kept its word. Those of us on the Nationalist side, the present Irish Government, Fianna Fail and other parties in this House, John Hume and the SDLP, Irish Americans and the administration of President Clinton all feel profoundly disappointed."
Self determination meant government by consent. But, as John Hume had often pointed out, the will of the Irish people to solve their differences and conflicts by exclusively political means was not in doubt and had on numerous occasions been overwhelmingly demonstrated.
"The present day IRA in practice have ignored the principle of national self determination. The people of Ireland have over and over again expressed in unmistakable fashion at elections their will that their profound differences have to be resolved by exclusively political means," said Mr Ahern.
"There should be no doubt about the position of Fianna Fail. While we consider that partition was a grave injustice and contrary to the principle of national self determination, if it had been correctly observed at the time, we cannot ignore the lapse of time, and treat Northern Ireland 75 years on as if it had never existed. Most of the Irish people, while they would like to see a united Ireland brought about in due course by peaceful means and agreement, have no wish to coerce an unwilling Unionist majority into a united Ireland against their will."
He said "I will be honest, and say that like many people I have great difficulty in understanding the tortuous distinctions between non coercion, veto and consent.
"Sinn Fein accept on the one hand that a Protestant majority in the North cannot be coerced into a united Ireland, but vehemently, deny that they have a right of veto over it. They accept that unionist agreement is needed for any settlement, but deny that the consent of a majority in the North is required. Quite frankly, most of us find such distinctions difficult to grasp, and doubt their substance or reality. Yet they seem to be a cause or source of conflict."
He was very surprised and disappointed that members of the IRA should have allowed themselves to be provoked into a serious blunder by British government obstruction and what in effect was an attempted unionist veto on inclusive political talks. "There will of course be a certain grim satisfaction at the turn of events in some of these quarters," he added.
Turning to the British government's role, Mr Ahern said he fully accepted that if he had been solely concerned with parliamentary arithmetic, Mr John Major would never have become involved in the peace process. "Unfortunately, I regret that his fine part in that achievement has more recently been overshadowed by serious mishandling of the peace process by the British government over most of the last year. I believe that the peace process would still be intact today, if it had been better and more sensitively handled, and without any loss of democratic principle."
Sir Patrick Mayhew had once used the analogy of a slow bicycle. Inevitably, perhaps, anyone who tries to slow bicycle will end up, as in his case, falling off. Mr Ahern told the Dail "As the person primarily in charge of Northern Ireland policy, I believe he bears more responsibility than anyone else for the prolonged impasse in the peace process, up to last Friday."
His party supported the conclusions of the Mitchell Report, which they found to be excellent.
It provided the solution to the decommissioning issue, and should have paved the way for all party talks before the end of February. "No one in this House could believe how within a few hours a most valuable piece of work could be cast unceremoniously aside by the British Prime Minister for an idea that came from only one side of the divide."
He added "The objective of all parties and governments involved in the peace process must be to get IRA violence stopped for good and political progress started."
Fianna Fail also believed the Mitchell Report itself still had a central role to play. "We must at all costs avoid being drawn back into old arguments about permanence and decommissioning. The only way to avoid that is to take the six Mitchell principles and phased decommissioning during negotiations as our cornerstone.
We should firmly resist any attempt by the British government to add a seventh principle, that of consent, which they had wished to see in the Mitchell Report. There must be no new preconditions.
"I have no difficulty welcoming John Hume's idea of a referendum, held simultaneously in both parts of Ireland, to underscore the exercise of the principle of self determination in relation both to violence, to put it beyond all argument or doubt, and all party talks. At that point, the IRA and the "apolitical parties would be directly confronted by the wishes of national democracy."
He went on "I come finally to the question of an electoral process or an elected body. I am glad the British Prime Minister accepted yesterday that this was not the only option. There are still many questions that remain unanswered."
The proximity talks proposed by the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, before the end of the month would be a demonstration of the two governments' good faith in keeping to their commitment in the communique of November 28th.
"The idea gets over the problem of parties that will not talk to each other," said the Fianna Fail leader. "I believe that either the appointment of a US peace envoy or the proximity talks or a combination of both would provide a good way to sort out ideas on the way forward."