SEANAD REPORT: Former SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, told the Seanad yesterday he believed that the democratic imperative of the Good Friday agreement would eventually see that it was implemented.
Mr Hume said paramilitarists on the nationalist side could no longer claim to be acting in the name of the Irish people on the basis of the vote in 1918. Therefore, the fundamental reason for paramilitarism had ceased to exist, he added.
Mr Hume, who was a Distinguished Person Invitee on the recommendation of the Seanad Committee on Procedures and Privileges, said the joint referendum had made it clear that the Agreement could be put in place only with the consent of the people of the Republic and of the North.
"In the light of this, it should be spelt out to unionists that if they overthrew the Agreement, they would be overthrowing the principle of consent. If that happened, how was the problem to be resolved in the future other than by the two governments working together to come up with an answer."
Unfortunately, said Mr Hume, we now had a totally unsatisfactory situation in which the institutions of the Agreement were in suspension, and there had been a failure to fully implement it on the part of some parties and groups.
There was a need, above all else, to overcome two crux problems, the first of which was to see an end to all paramilitary activity on this island, whether that was from loyalist sources or from those who called themselves republicans.
"This must be accompanied by full decommissioning by all paramilitary organisations and groups and by a total normalisation of society in the North.
Unionists must agree to fully and faithfully implement all power-sharing and partnership required by the Agreement, including the Northern Ireland Executive and the North-South Ministerial Council.
"The Agreement cannot take away the pain, but it is the start of the healing process. It has the potential to deliver so much for our island, north and south."
Describing the EU as the best example in history of the whole world of conflict resolution, Mr Hume said he would like to see it establish a special department of peace and reconciliation in the Commission, with a Commissioner and sending to areas of conflict.
Praising the sterling work of the Irish Presidency which, he said, was contributing so much to the development of the new Europe, Mr Hume said that great efforts were being made to finalise arrangements for the enlargement in May, while at the same time the Irish Presidency was pursuing the applications for further member-states.
He also commended the priority being given to the development of a new European constitution.
"I am convinced the constitution should be based on the primacy of a Europe of equal member-states. It is not in the best interests of the people of Europe to create a two-tier European Union.
"That would undermine the most fundamental principle of Europe - equality and respect for difference."
He had every confidence that the current difficulties in divising a new constitution would be overcome.
The British Embassy here was endeavouring to get a Westminster law changed so that Irish war veterans or their relatives could get financial assistance to visit war graves abroad, the Leader of the House, Mrs O'Rourke said.
She told Mr David Norris (Ind) that she would be taking up the matter personally because she had received correspondence about it.
"I don't think it would kill the British Government to pay a few extra pounds for Irish veterans who so generously volunteered" added Mr Norris.