For the first time ever the political representatives of all parts of this island can work together in these institutions to improve the quality of people's lives.
The all-Ireland ministerial council will plot a course to harmonise and strengthen the political, economic, cultural and social relationships among all sections of our people. Taken together we can see that these institutions provide a dynamic that will transform Ireland and its people, and provide a meaningful process of national reconciliation.
This is the common-sense approach in a country where the territory and the people have been divided for the best part of this century and engulfed in conflict intermittently for most of this time. All of this will present even more huge challenges for our membership, for our representatives in Leinster House and in the new Assembly, and especially for our two ministers-designate Bairbre de Brun and Martin McGuinness. In my view they and we are up to that challenge.
The Assembly and related political institutions will in effect be a coalition government. This incoming phase, therefore, represents an unprecedented opportunity for Sinn Fein to promote a radical republican programme, to demonstrate our competence and to deliver real change.
It is our intention to be innovative where possible. To be open and democratic. To develop outreach to citizens so that politics becomes the means of empowering people and not the vehicle for self-advancement for a chosen few, or the means to alienate or disadvantage any section of our people. Economic democracy is essential to Sinn Fein's political programme. We believe that people and local communities have to be at the centre of economic development policy.
Sinn Fein is a 32-county party representing that tradition in Irish politics which is best described as republican labour, the legacy of Pearse, and Connolly and Tone. Our commitment is to bringing forward real all-Ireland policies and to offering an effective alternative to the corruption and failed politics that continue to be a feature of political life here.
People in this State are rightly proud of many aspects of the Celtic Tiger economy. Some - perhaps many - citizens are doing better than ever before. But there is another side of the Celtic Tiger, and that is poverty, homelessness and inequality. It may be hard to believe that in the midst of all the talk of the Celtic Tiger economy, more people are living in poverty now than there were 20 years ago.
The failure to share the prosperity of the Celtic Tiger is widely felt at many levels, by low-paid workers in service industries, by farmers, health workers, building workers and the ongoing scandal of homelessness. We want to see the wealth shared by greatly increasing spending on health and education, childcare, and by the introduction of the minimum wage and widespread tax reform.
Successive governments have completely failed in their responsibilities and have shown themselves incapable of or unwilling to prioritise the interests of ordinary people. We should remember that during the 1980s, when young people in this city were dying in their hundreds, the wealthiest in our society were robbing their fellow citizens of essential State services by stealing massive amounts of tax as Ansbacher account holders. We are about changing all of that.
It is worth noting that while revelations continue about how the wealthy have been dodging tax, the Coalition Government is still dragging its feet on introducing the promised national minimum wage - and the gap between the rich and the poor in our society is ever widening.
We believe that this present period of economic prosperity should and must be used to build equality and social justice in our society. That is the demand which we made today in our pre-Budget submission.
The new institutions, the new politics they represent and the potential they contain will be resisted by reactionary forces within and outside the British system. There are strong elements who have set their face against change. They have never reconciled themselves to the reality that they never smashed Sinn Fein, that they never defeated us.
They are against equality, against a new policing service, against all of the changes that are required if we are to build a durable and lasting peace. These elements are exploiting and will continue to exploit the genuine fears engendered by the process of change.
This process has been consistently under attack from rejectionists, who range from those who on almost a daily basis are attacking Catholic homes, to those who are challenging their own political leadership.
This leadership understands the difficulties and the challenges that this process presents to unionism and its leadership. But it is also the best opportunity for political leaders to take charge, and like all political opportunities it has to be seized; it has to be seized sooner rather than later, and we need to make progress, and make that progress urgently.
But for every movement forward in the last number of years there has also been a series of failed efforts. It is the responsibility of the two governments and all our political leaderships to ensure that this does not happen again.
No one out there within the British establishment or unionist constituency should underestimate the limits to which Sinn Fein have stretched ourselves and our constituency in our endeavours to make this process work.
The reason that Sinn Fein has stretched ourselves and our constituency is because we have always had our eyes fixed firmly on the prize.
We want a new Ireland in which all the people of this island will be cherished equally and in which everyone will be politically, socially and economically empowered. Sinn Fein see a 32-county republic and a new relationship with our nearest neighbour based upon our mutual independence, as the best way to eradicate the range of political, social and economic and other inequalities which affect the people of this island. This does not represent a threat to the unionist section of our people.
The vast majority of people want peace. Nationalists and republicans support the objective of a united Ireland and therefore would like to see a new democratic dispensation which transcends Partition and which makes a difference to them in their daily lives.
They want to see an effective, peaceful political strategy to give effect to that. They understand and support the agreement which we are trying to forge with unionism because it is based on the principles of inclusivity and equality.
It is essential in all of this that the British government faces up to its historical and contemporary responsibilities to the people of this island. The London government is a player with its own political interests.
Sinn Fein fully recognises this, and it is for this reason that Sinn Fein's commitment to our political objectives will continue. We must continue to build support for an end to Partition, an end to the British government's involvement in our country and a united Ireland. These are entirely legitimate, democratic and desirable objectives.
I want to thank all of you gathered here tonight and through you the different structures of our party that you represent. That we have come so far is in no small measure due to your endeavours and your capacity to make struggle. Building democracy on this island and creating a healing process is not easy. I have no doubt that for the foreseeable future this will present all of us with difficulties.
Peace demands justice and justice requires fundamental change. I have also no doubt that we will succeed in our endeavours to bring this about. You are part of the fastest-growing political party in Ireland today.
Whether it is here in our capital city, or in Cavan or Monaghan, or Kerry or Wexford, or Belfast or south Armagh, it is clear that Sinn Fein is winning more and more hearts and minds right across the island.
Sinn Fein is a truly nationalist party, the only all-Ireland party and our vision is of one island people emancipated and at peace with each other.
We want a just and lasting peace. So do the vast majority of people in these islands. Let us ensure that none of us fails the people.