The full text of the speech by Mr David Trimble at the opening of the Omagh International Summer School yesterday was as follows:It is a great pleasure for me to be here in Omagh. This is my first day back after the summer break, and I can think of nowhere more important to be on this day than Omagh. Because I was unable to be in Omagh for the anniversary memorial service it is especially important to me personally to be able to join you today.
The terrible tragedy of a year ago has remained in the forefront of our minds. It is in our minds because of the suffering of those scarred physically and emotionally and because of those who have reacted with such bravery and dignity to the tragedy.
It has also remained in our thoughts because Omagh stands in one sense as a memorial for all of the tragedies suffered over the last 30 years in what we euphemistically call the troubles. It was the worst single atrocity of those years and it was the most heartless, coming as it did after the Belfast Agreement in which all sides moved a long way to secure peace and to avoid precisely what happened here in Omagh.
Memory of the Omagh tragedy has not faded, and I believe it will not fade. It stands to remind us of all of those who have suffered in so many tragedies, at Enniskillen, La Mon House, Teebane Cross and the Shankill Road, at Loughinisland and Greysteel, at Monaghan, Manchester and Canary Wharf, and at so many other places.
It is because of this that this international summer school is important. The example of Omagh as a model of reconciliation and of renewal has touched many people, not only here in Northern Ireland but throughout the world. Omagh has set a standard for all of us, to look forward rather than back, to be constructive not destructive, and to focus on renewal and on regeneration.
A reminder of the importance of regeneration is just what is needed as the parties reassemble to begin the process of review, which we hope will put new life and progress into the Belfast Agreement.
It is because of the suffering involved at so many places, large and small, that it was so important to achieve the agreement between the parties last year and why it is so important that everything is done to ensure that that agreement is maintained.
I am more disappointed than anyone that the agreement is bogged down in dissension. I had confidently expected that an inclusive executive would have been operating by now, returning the government of Northern Ireland to those elected by the people of Northern Ireland for the first time in more than a quarter of a century. The fact that it has not been possible to set up the executive is a serious setback for all of us who wish to move forward to construct a new and happier Northern Ireland.
I understood the government's desire to accelerate progress and to achieve a breakthrough before the summer holidays. But I knew that it was a mistake to turn a target date into an immovable deadline. There are no short cuts to achieving peace, there is no magic wand. There is no alternative to the hard work of getting it right, no matter how long it takes.
This is not the place to dwell at length on how things could have been handled better last July, but let me just say this. More time, and less pressure to go through the charade of nominating ministers when there was not the necessary cross-community consensus, could, in my view, have avoided the unfortunate resignation of my colleague Seamus Mallon.
The crash was not inevitable and a soft landing could and should have been achieved. The important thing now is to pick up the pieces. I hope that Seamus will reconsider his position so that he and I can resume normal service in our shared desire to bring permanent peace to this part of the world.
Building on firm foundations is the surest guarantee of eventual success. We have made the offer to Sinn Fein that they and ourselves can jump together. This offer is more than fair. It involves no loss of dignity on either side. It remains on the table and I still hope that it will be picked up.
Let me make one thing crystal clear. There is absolutely no resistance within my Assembly party to setting up a fully inclusive executive. This is what we agreed in the Belfast Agreement and this is what we will do. We know that the agreement will not work as well as it could without Sinn Fein. They must also realise that it cannot work without decommissioning and without the use of exclusively peaceful and democratic methods.
There can be no killing or maiming, neither on the terrible scale experienced at Omagh nor on a smaller day by day scale. Part of the regeneration of Northern Ireland must be a complete and final cessation of all violence for political ends.
The task of politicians from all parties is now to reinvigorate the agreement and to realise the promise which the agreement presented on that historic Good Friday. This will be my priority from the moment I leave this summer school. I know that most other politicians will do the same.
The theme of this summer school is regeneration, and I want this also to be the key theme of the new executive when it is formed.
Regeneration takes many different forms and needs to be tackled on a wide front. Eventually, when enough has been achieved, I hope that a spirit of regeneration can become self sustaining, based on a renewed confidence and upon a pride in ourselves and in the places where we live.
Governments cannot conjure up attitudinal changes of this sort, but they can contribute powerfully through the development of consistently constructive policies which contribute to regeneration in different ways. Of course, it also goes without saying that the formation of an inclusive executive, and the spectacle of former adversaries working together to improve the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, is a sine qua non of the changes we seek.
Regeneration must involve improvements in economic performance, although there is more, much more, to regeneration than this. The Northern Ireland economy has made powerful strides during the 1990s. Unemployment is at half the level of 5 five years ago and is now well below the average for the European Union. Even five years ago unemployment here was 5 five times higher than in Asian success stories like Japan, while today the difference between Northern Ireland and Japan is small.
Although we have become quite good at generating jobs, we have not succeeded in raising our incomes above those of the poorer regions of the UK or EU. This is our next challenge for regeneration.
The Republic of Ireland has shown what can be achieved, in this respect, in a short span of time. Ten years ago the Republic languished in its traditional position as one of Europe's poorest economies. Today the Republic has virtually caught up with UK and European living standards. If its recent spectacular rates of economic growth continue for many more years, the Republic will soon surpass these averages.
Our task will be to regenerate our economy to the same extent as the Republic as done. As an integral part of the UK, we will not be able to adopt the same mix of policies used in the Republic but, instead, must work out our own ways of achieving the same result.
Just as Tony Blair believes that education is at the heart of national regeneration, I believe the same is true for Northern Ireland. We are justly proud of our best schools and the excellent results which our best pupils achieve. At the same time we know well that too many of our children under-achieve at school. Our aim for a renewed and revitalised Northern Ireland should be to achieve a fully educated society, in the sense that every school-leaver has the required qualifications either to enter university or to attain a skilled, well paid and secure job.
Other countries have achieved just this. If they can do it, so can we in a new Northern Ireland.
Education is so important that it is almost always a matter of political controversy. An inclusive government is likely to involve those opposed to selective education, and the debate over selection is likely to come to the fore once an executive is formed. We must use the strength of inclusiveness to avoid long and damaging arguments in education which prove detrimental to the improvements we seek.
I will avoid the temptation to lapse into cliche and talk of a third way, but whatever we call it, we must achieve a leap forward in education which avoids the damaging conflict which occurred in many parts of Britain.
Regeneration will also be needed in other areas of life, including health. Again we are proud of the health service in Northern Ireland and admire all that is it has achieved, but we recognise that it is under stress, as it is throughout the UK. We also know the standards of health in Northern Ireland need major improvements. General standards of health lag too far behind other parts of the western world, for a variety of reasons. Bombs may be the most dramatic cause of early death and loss of health, but illness in its quieter and more personal way causes even more suffering. There is much we can and should do to generate better standards of health, and I am anxious to be involved in this task.
Others will talk at this summer school about urban and rural regeneration and hence I do not propose to dwell on this aspect of regeneration. I would like though to pay tribute to what has been achieved in recent years in spite of the many difficulties faced by this society. Inner city areas have been transformed by the new housing built in ways which people approve of and which preserves a community spirit. District towns and villages are steadily improving with many new projects.
As someone who has just returned from the continent I am very aware that standards of urban and rural built environment can be very high. For the sake of our own residents, and also for the tourists we hope to attract, we must continue to reach for the highest possible standards. All will, I am sure, look approvingly at what is being attempted here in Omagh, and its surrounding areas, in these respects.
Let me finish by saying that I applaud your use of the word regeneration in this summer school, and wish to adopt it as a key concept for the new administration because it implies more than incremental improvement. It does of course involve improvement, but it also involves a longer vision and aspiration of the sort of society we wish to create.
To achieve the regeneration of society, which I have been talking about, the priority of politicians must now be to form a cohesive government, at the core of an increasingly cohesive society, which puts its efforts into regeneration rather than into conflict.