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7th May 2003
British and Irish Governments have been engaged in charade to shield David Trimble
Speaking in the Dáil debate on the peace process the leader of the Sinn Fein TDs Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said both the British and Irish governments have been engaged in a charade, pretending that the IRA's initiative was not sufficient for them, but in reality shielding David Trimble from the consequences of his actions. Deputy Ó Caoláin accused the Government of ``a dereliction of its duty and of helping to pave the way for the disgraceful decision by Tony Blair to ban an Irish election''.
Deputy Ó Caoláin said:
We cannot go forward on the basis that the Irish government is an honest broker. We have heard a lot about clarification but the Taoiseach has yet to clarify that assertion from the Minister for Justice. The Irish Government is a co-equal partner in the Agreement with the British government. The British government acts in British interests as it sees them. The Irish government must act in the Irish national interest. For decades while it was carrying on a brutal war in Ireland - a war highlighted most recently by the Stevens Report - the British government pretended to be the referee keeping the so-called `two warring sides' apart. Are we now to have that tragedy repeated as farce with both governments pretending to be neutral arbiters while the unionist veto is allowed to succeed again?
Full text:
Both the Irish and British Governments have been engaged in a charade since 13 April. In this charade the two governments have pretended in public that the IRA's unprecedented statement of that date and published yesterday was insufficient for them. They have tried to fool the people into believing that the clarification provided by Gerry Adams on 27 April was also inadequate in their eyes. And they have claimed that even further clarification provided by Gerry Adams on 30 April, one week ago, did not go far enough.
I assert that these claims by both Governments are totally false and I point to the reality that the vast majority of Irish people now recognise.
The unprecedented initiative by the IRA and the best efforts of Sinn Fein have been rejected and rubbished by the nominal leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble, and both Governments have carried on this charade in order to protect Mr. Trimble from the political consequences of his actions.
The demands of Mr. Trimble are insatiable because they are meant to be insatiable and he continues to be indulged by the British Prime Minister.
Neither the British Prime Minister nor the Taoiseach are prepared to say `enough is enough' to David Trimble while they are always ready to demand more from republicans. Why? Because they know that the republican commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and to the peace process is solid. But in shielding David Trimble, and in taking republican commitment for granted the Governments have damaged and undermined the very Agreement they claim to uphold. And they have caused anger and resentment among republicans, deep and justifiable anger that will make the task of rebuilding the political process much more difficult.
I accuse this Irish government of a dereliction of its duty and of helping to pave the way for the disgraceful decision by Tony Blair to ban an Irish election. When that decision was announced in London on May Day we had weak statements of dissent from the Government here in Dublin. At Farmleigh yesterday in his opening remarks to the media the Taoiseach did not even mention the banning of the Assembly elections. This act against Irish democracy by a British government was merely alluded to as a temporary setback. The two Governments' Joint Declaration states on its first page:
The best way of ensuring that peace remains permanent is by demonstrating that politics work.
And how did the British government demonstrate that politics work on the very day the Declaration was published? By postponing the Assembly elections indefinitely! The British government had no right to do this but it acted in time-honoured Westminster fashion where the rights of Irish people are concerned. It seems that the British government has yet to make, in the words of the Joint Declaration, `the transition to exclusively democratic means'.
Martin McGuinness, the chief negotiator for Sinn Fein, was told by David Trimble that no matter what the IRA said or did he would not call an Ulster Unionist Council meeting and return to the Executive ahead of the Assembly elections. Jeffrey Donaldson is now the real leader of the Ulster Unionist Party which he pulled into the anti-Agreement camp last September. And he has already rejected the Joint Declaration.
I believe that Sinn Fein has gone far more than the extra mile to break the impasse in this peace process. Any objective reading of the Good Friday Agreement will show that we have long fulfilled all our obligations.
These are realities which some on the Government benches may not like to hear. But they must be recognised if we are to move forward. We cannot go forward on the basis of what I have described as a charade. And we cannot go forward on the basis that the Irish government is an honest broker. We have heard a lot about clarification but the Taoiseach has yet to clarify that assertion from the Minister for Justice. The Irish Government is a co-equal partner in the Agreement with the British government. The British government acts in British interests as it sees them. The Irish government must act in the Irish national interest. For decades while it was carrying on a brutal war in Ireland - a war highlighted most recently by the Stevens Report - the British government pretended to be the referee keeping the so-called two warring sides apart. Are we now to have that tragedy repeated as farce with both governments pretending to be neutral arbiters while the unionist veto is allowed to succeed again?
This process will be rebuilt and we in Sinn Fein will play our part to the full but let both governments note that it can be built on nothing less than the rights of the Irish people and that no matter how it is resisted or delayed, change is unstoppable."
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