Mr Seamus Mallon, Deputy First Minister, said that while the old confrontational politics of Northern Ireland were dealt a death blow by the Belfast Agreement, the "beast was not yet dead".
He thanked the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, for the tenacity of his commitment and his clarity of vision, "which helped to guide us through the darkest hours".
Mr Mallon said it was his pleasure to pay tribute to Mo Mowlam. She had transformed the office of Secretary of State with a humanity and courage which had inspired everyone.
He said the old politics of Northern Ireland - of confrontation, of pushing on for victory, for dominance, disregarding the identity of others - was dealt a death blow by the Good Friday agreement.
"But the beast is not yet dead, he said. "We have seen its destructive capacity several times in recent months. But with each crisis the people have rallied, rejected the old ways and turned towards the new politics."
He said that equality, parity of esteem and parallel consent were written into the agreement. They were at its very core and they would be implemented. `'But we must do more. We must focus on the quality of government."
He said the agreement was based on the principle that all key decisions were taken on a cross-community basis. Without cross-community agreement there could be no significant executive action. The principle was diametrically opposed to the old politics, which saw each and every decision as a "victory" for one side or the other.
The role of the First and Deputy First Ministers was the harbinger of the cross-community agreement which had to underpin every decision and which guaranteed fairness of treatment.
The tackling of sectarian divisions was now central to the whole political process. "In the new dispensation, those who cannot reach out and take on board the other community are doomed to failure.
"Each party to the agreement needs space to accommodate the new arrangements. We must create that space, not just for the sake of our partners but for our own sake too."
Nowhere was this more important than in relation to decommissioning, he said. "If we continue - all of us - to mishandle this issue we run the risk of wrecking what we have achieved. The enemies of the agreement, the old politics, will rejoice, the beast will run loose again.
"Energies which should be focused on the massive challenges facing us - creating a new executive, restructuring government, establishing a North-South council, British-Irish council, and consultative civic forum - are instead, being squandered on tactical manoeuvring around the issue. It is time to stop."
He said it was also time to create with the two governments and the international body under General de Chastelain a process which could further address the issue of decommissioning while making progress in the implementation of all elements of the agreement.
Each signatory to the agreement pledged to `in good faith, work to ensure the success of each and every one of the arrangements to be established under the agreement". There were no exceptions in that pledge.
Those same signatories adopted the procedural motion of September 24th, 1997 - quoted in the agreement - that "the resolution of the decommissioning issue is an indispensable part of the process of negotiation". There was no escaping from that reality - decommissioning was an essential requirement of the agreement.
"This issue has caused serious problems for unionism. Some of them, admittedly, are opposed to the agreement, and are using this issue as a political whipping-boy. Others are striving to implement the agreement - both the bits they like and the bits they don't like. They do have serious problems, which merit consideration."
Sinn Fein had a primary political duty to address these problems. And they were not adequately addressed by simply referring to the legal, technical text of the agreement.
For the unionist community at large, the requirement to decommission was the fundamental confidence-building measure which could create the trust needed to make progress and prevent this issue from remaining - as it was - a running sore on the body politic.