The agreement offered a chance of an Ireland united in peace, partnership and democracy, and offered our children and their children the prospect of a life without fear of political violence, the leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa said.
It offered the people of this island the opportunity to realise the full economic potential that existed but which, thus far, had not been realised. It was a good and fair agreement and deserved the support of all our people.
"I believe that the people in both jurisdictions will endorse the agreement but there is no room for complacency," he said. The people needed the facts put before them clearly and concisely. There should be no time lost in getting a copy of the agreement into every household in the country.
The parties who supported the agreement would have to actively campaign for it, leaving nothing to chance and losing no opportunity of putting the considerable merits of the document to the electorate.
"This is not a time for procrastination, for picking and choosing, for mischievous `patriot games'. It is time to bring an end to one of the darkest chapters in our history, time for a new beginning," Mr De Rossa said. This new beginning must be made. We must put past divisions behind us and, above all, political violence must become a thing of the past in Ireland.
"Let us never forget that 3,249 people died because of ancient quarrels that locked us in the past, freezing Northern Ireland in bitterness and hatred," he said.
"It is almost certain that extremists on both sides will attempt to wreck this agreement by violence," he said. Due to the good work of the gardai a number of such attempts had already been thwarted and he wished them every success in the "trying days ahead". The RUC would also have its work cut out in keeping the peace as fanatics endeavoured to resume "the war".
The political campaign in Northern Ireland would be bitter and hard fought. There were many supporters of the agreement who found elements of it unpalatable, in particular the release of prisoners and the lack of clarity about the requirements of decommissioning paramilitary weapons, he said.
All of those involved in the negotiations deserved credit for the manner in which they worked until the very end to secure acceptable compromise and ultimate agreement.
Mr De Rossa mentioned Senator Mitchell and the Taoiseach. He said nobody would begrudge the Taoiseach his extraordinarily high ratings in the opinion polls. It was a reflection of the genuine respect he won all round by the manner in which he applied himself to the final stages of negotiations against the background of his own family bereavement.
The DL leader also mentioned Mr Albert Reynolds, Mr John Bruton and Mr Dick Spring, Mr John Hume and Mr Seamus Mallon. "The agreement was not a victory for any one party: it was a victory for reason, for dialogue and, most of all, for the countless people who have yearned for an end to the terrible cycle of violence that has blighted Northern Ireland for so long," Mr De Rossa said.
It was, as all agreement between diametrically opposed objectives must be, a compromise. Everyone gave something, everyone got something. Inevitably, there were supporters of parties who believed that their "side" gave too much or did not win sufficient concessions from the "other side".
The agreement must be sold to the people for what it is, and not for what some people would like it to be. It was not an automatic escalator to a united Ireland and neither did it copper-fasten the Union for all time. It neither ruled in or ruled out either option.
All of those who negotiated the agreement must now sell it with commitment and enthusiasm. Against this background, there must be some concern at the position the Sinn Fein leadership was now adopting.
"Having shown commendable political courage and practical skill in negotiating the document, they cannot now adopt a sort of semi-detached or neutral position on it. Neither can they cherry-pick, choosing to support some elements but not others. I am concerned that Sinn Fein is going to take up to a month to decide its position - the referendum campaign would be in its final days at that stage," he said.
David Trimble was entitled to enormous credit, not just for his courage in negotiating the agreement but for the manner in which he had since set about convincing his own party members and the people of Northern Ireland of the merits of the deal. Referring to Sinn Fein, he said: "They fudged the issue at the ardfheis, with Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness opting for a double comedy act in place of politics."
Turning to Article 2 and 3, he said the existing articles were framed in the language of conquest. They were a relic of another era, reflecting the language and attitude of the 1930s. "A rag-bag of reactionaries has come together to oppose any change in Articles 2 and 3. They are supported by a section of Irish-America whose stone-age politics have nothing to offer Ireland today," he said.
"The fact is that the proposed amendments to the Constitution will not make any Irish citizen less Irish. They will not take our country away from us, nor will they undermine Irish nationality," Mr De Rossa stated.
The proposed amendments reflected a more self-confident Ireland which did not feel the need for territorial claims to express itself. They reflected the fact that the vast majority of Irish people did not need flags or emblems to tell them that they were Irish.
The early release of prisoners was one of the most difficult areas of the agreement. It had been part of the settlement of virtually every political conflict throughout the world and it could be no different here.
The issue of decommissioning would have to be confronted and dealt with. It would be just as difficult for paramilitaries to accept the decommissioning of weapons as it was for the victims of the paramilitaries to accept the release of prisoners. But both were essential components of this settlement.
