The progress in the Northern Ireland peace process will not be "uniquely irreversible or immune to setback" until the Good Friday agreement is implemented in full, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen has warned.Speaking to the British/Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body meeting in Kilkenny, the Minister urged all parties to make the leaps now necessary to restore the North's political institutions before the May 29th elections.
"Now is not the time to play the process long, to seek to extract one concession too far, to assume that the doors of people who have been endlessly patient and supportive remain as generously open as they have in the past.
"As in the affairs of men, there is also a tide of opportunity for conflict resolution that inevitably recedes if not taken on the flood," he told the Irish and British parliamentarians at their six-monthly plenary meeting.
He urged all sides to remember that the Oslo Middle East peace accords, which were agreed 10 years ago, had created "great hopes" then that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict could be ended.
"Those hopes have since dimmed. Israel and Palestine have, for some time, been locked into a sterile and violent stand-off, although we all hope that the recently produced 'road map' will regenerate momentum in the search for peace.
"Conscious of these global realities, we must not make the mistake of assuming that, regardless of opportunities not taken or declined, our peace process is uniquely irreversible or immune to setback until the remaining vital strategic decisions are taken to enable the full and faithful implementation of the agreement," said the Minister.
He went on: "In the shadow of a global crisis, the next few weeks may paradoxically be a time for great opportunity for the peace process on this island.
"In the coming period, that opportunity must be seized for the benefit of all of the people of Northern Ireland and also to extend a light of hope to an international community that yearns for an enduring model of peace amidst the discouragement of war.
Offering an optimistic review of this month's negotiations in Hillsborough, he said: "I was impressed by the extent of the commonality, in approach and analysis, of all of the parties. Despite their different political needs and pressures, each of them demonstrated a great commitment to finding a collective way forward through the difficult issues that were being addressed."
And he emphasised the unity between Dublin and London: "It occurred to me then that Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair had in 1998 negotiated the agreement as colleagues; they were now delivering it as friends."
Earlier, Sinn Féin Louth TD, Mr Arthur Morgan said "significant progress" on policing and justice has been made.
"There isn't much more to done to facilitate everyone moving forward. Most people accept that that is the case," he added
Conservative former Northern Ireland Office Minister, Mr Michael Mates, said the Northern Ireland elections should be further delayed if the Assembly and the Executive are not back in operation before May 29th.
He said that hopes for progress after the Sunningdale Agreement were dashed because an "unnecessary" House of Commons election forced voters "back to the tribes, back to the trenches".
