Blair in strong position to take decisive action in peace process, say Bruton

THE Taoiseach said he would explore how best to inject the necessary momentum into the peace process when he meets the British Prime Minister in London today.

Mr Bruton said that Mr Blair was now in a strong position to take decisive action. "I have no doubt that he will do so in a fair and balanced way. I hope and expect that our meeting will be the beginning of a long, cordial and productive working relationship between both our governments."

He believed, he said, that working together both governments could develop many new possibilities for cooperation relating to Northern Ireland, bilaterally and within Europe. There were possibilities for structured cooperation between the two governments in areas including education, anti crime measures, homelessness, the food industry and the environment.

"I will be taking these issues up with Mr Blair at our meeting. I hope, too, that we will be able to avail of our meeting to further prepare together for the EU summit in Amsterdam next month."

Inter governmental cooperation was essential to securing progress on the North, Mr Bruton said.

"Mr Blair - and his new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Dr Mowlam - have already made clear that future arrangements for the governance of Northern Ireland should address all the relevant relationships and be capable of attracting the support of all parts of the community, thereby recognising the need for nationalist as well as unionist consent.

"These positions reflect the commitments in black and white - in the manifesto on which the British Labour Party sought office, which also recalled their support for the AngloIrish Agreement, the Joint Declaration and the Joint Framework Document.

The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, asked if the Taoiseach would now go back to the position of last Christmas when he endeavoured, but failed, to convince the then British government that it was time to agree on a fixed date for inclusive talks if there was an unequivocal IRA ceasefire.

Mr Bruton said he taken that position relating to the Christmas break in the talks, and had continued to hold it. "I think it is important that there should be a clear indication, or target date, towards which people can work in terms of ensuring that the basic conditions set out in the ground rules are complied with and that everybody is in the talks on the basis of a durable ceasefire from which there is no going back."

Mr Ahern suggested that Mr Bruton should explore confidence building measures with Mr Blair such as the prisoners issue. A good confidence building gesture would be to ask Mr Blair to release Ms Roisin McAliskey on bail, to have her baby, on humanitarian grounds and because of the apparently flimsy nature of the evidence against her.

Mr Bruton said he had always been of the view that it was valuable and useful to have interim confidence building measures directed at both communities to reassure them of the governments goodwill and their anxiety to deal with all issues in a humanitarian way and of the respect they had for the concerns and allegiances of, both traditions.

In that regard, he thought it was important that they should continue to make progress on the prisoners issue in terms of early release. He also believed that there was a need for confidence building measures relating to the parades issue, which should also be looked on as an opportunity for forging genuine cross community agreements on specific matters at local level.

He would also raise Ms McAliskey's case with Mr Blair, as well as other prisoner issues generally. Such issues should be looked at in a humanitarian way without any concession regarding the due process of law.

Mr Desmond O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) said that the peace process, such as it was, was likely to be most detrimentally affected in the months to come by the advent of the marching season. He urged the Taoiseach to impress on Mr Blair and Dr Mowlam the need to deal firmly and clearly with that prospect to try to ensure that there was not a repetition of what had happened last summer.

Mr Bruton said he welcomed, in particular, Dr Mowlam's statement that she would ensure that the rule of law was upheld. "It is important that the rule of law should be seen to be something that applies regardless of numbers, minorities, majorities, and of situations, and that there is a standard of protection, a standard of maintenance of order that will be applied in all circumstances."

Asked by Mr Ahern about reform of the RUC, the Taoiseach said the question of policing was crucial to the building of cross community confidence in the North on a whole range of issues. "A police force is the ultimate expression of the power of the political system in any community."

Mr Trevor Sargent (Green Party, Dublin North) urged Mr Bruton to explore with Mr Blair means to build a consensus which would not have been to the fore in the British general election.