POLITICAL TALKS - 29 APRIL 1992

ANNEX A

Ladies and Gentlemen

I extend to you a very warm welcome.

We meet in order to carry forward political talks which were newly begun on 9 March but interrupted by the General Election.

I am grateful to the leaders of the four constitutional parties represented here today for their commitment to the holding of these talks. More importantly, I believe they also have the gratitude of almost all who live in Northern Ireland. For the hopes of so many people - and not by any means in Northern Ireland alone - rest upon these deliberations.

I judge that those hopes are encouraged now by a new sense of what is possible. That we should achieve all that is possible is now not so much their plea as their demand.

For my part I hold a responsibility which I am very glad to shoulder for helping you in your task, and indeed for joining you in it as a member of the Government, with my colleague Jeremy Hanley. I will do my best. I have before me the example of my friend and colleague Peter Brooke. If it were not for him we should certainly not be here today. My very short time in post has been enough to show me the heartfelt and grateful respect in which he is so widely held. It is fitting that I, too, should record today my own deep admiration for my predecessor, and my determination to carry forward to fulfilment the task with which he persevered so very fruitfully.

But I have also your own example to follow, and from which to gain strength. For none of you can it have been wholly easy to decide to join in the Talks, and for some it must have been much harder than for others. For all it must have been difficult not to be deflected or discouraged by the tribulations which from time to time you have respectively encountered. To resume your forward march on the compass-bearing you accepted has called for political courage, principle, vision, tolerance and sophistication. I know, and you know, that heavy demands will continue to be made upon those qualities. But these are the qualities of a statesman - and I want you to know that I believe they are present among you in abundance. Indeed, it is the coupling of the political talent to be found in all sectors of the community in Northern Ireland, to the business of government in Northern Ireland, that represents one of the great objectives I believe we must have before us.

I consider the present concentration of virtually all political power in Northern Ireland Ministers to be now an absurdity, as to the circumstances of whose introduction there may still be disagreement, but as to the need for whose step by step correction there should surely now be none. (Nevertheless it will indeed continue if nothing more sensible can be agreed.)

Similarly it would be difficult to dispute the proposition that the totality of relationships North-South and East-West, should be regularised and normalised. These matters will all be for discussion and, I hope, agreement.

It seems sensible at this stage to remind ourselves of what all concerned have agreed shall be the basis for these Talks. It was decided when the new Talks were started on 9 March that their basis would continue to be found, and only to be found, in Mr Brooke's statement to the House of Commons of 26 March 1991. I will cite two sentences:

"The endeavour on which we have all agreed to embark is an ambitious one. We are setting out to achieve a new beginning for relationships within Northern Ireland, within the island of Ireland and between the peoples of these islands."

Mr Brooke observed that the stated positions of all the parties were well known. He reaffirmed the Government's own position, as I do today, namely "that Northern Ireland's present status as a part of the UK will not change without the consent of a majority of its people."

Equally Mr Brooke made it clear that

"in order to ensure a full airing of the issues it will be open to each of the parties to raise any aspect of these relationships, including constitutional issues, or any other matter which it considers relevant."

Lastly, I recall Mr Brooke's statement of the declared joint position of the two signatories of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, to which they were and remain committed, namely that:-

"they would be prepared to consider a new and more broadly based agreement if such an agreement" - that is to say, an agreement as to the totality of the relationships I have mentioned - "can be arrived at through direct discussion and negotiation between all the parties concerned"

Those passages, together with all else in the statement of 26 March, remain the definitive foundation for these new talks. Much protracted effort went into the drafting. The statement received the approval and consent of all concerned parties. I believe we would be most unwise to attempt to put a gloss up on any part of that statement, let alone even to consider renegotiating it. After so much time properly spent on the preliminaries, we are now looked to by the public for early and substantive progress.

Accordingly, for example, in relation to the transition from Strand one to Strand two in these discussions I adopt in its entirety and without gloss or explanation the language of my predecessor:

"It has been agreed by all the participants that before long, when, after consultation, I judge that an appropriate point has been reached, I will propose formally that the other two strands should be launched. My judgement as to timing will be governed by the fact that all involved have agreed that the three sets of discussions will be under way within weeks of each other."

To that I shall hold.

I point, however, to the formidable scale of the task which we set ourselves to complete within three months, and I most earnestly urge the adoption of the self-discipline, and especially concentration, that its achievement will require from us all. We must bear in mind that it is agreed that: "nothing will be finally agreed in any strand until everything is agreed in the talks as a whole....."

I suggest that maintenance of object should be our first principle.

I think we shall be assisted in all this if we keep before us - and this will be the last example of a lawyer's passion for citing authority - the words again of my predecessor, when he addressed you on 17 June last:

"this will require mutual trust and a strict adherence to our agreement that the talks should be confidential. But openess [sic] will clearly be necessary if we are to come to a full understanding of each others' positions. But if there is candour, there will also need to be tolerance; at some stage, we are all likely to hear things which we would rather not hear - but unless we are open about the issues, we will not be able to make progress in overcoming the problems. I hope that none of us will rush into any quick judgements or conclusions and that we will allow the issues to have a proper airing before we start to make firm pronouncements on each others' attitudes".

I turn now to the nature of today's business.

I have already mentioned the imperative imposed by our timetable. With a view to assisting progress I wrote to the Party leaders last Friday, setting out my proposed approach to the actual handling of the Talks. One of the propositions which appears generally acceptable is that we should begin this morning's business by inviting Mr Hanley to report the conclusions of the Business Committee which met on 9 March. Thereafter, I suggest each of the Party leaders could valuably make a short general contribution recalling his Party's broad position as we address Strand One in the substantive stage of our talks. Then, after the plenary session has concluded, the Business Committee might reconvene to help plan our future work programme.

That Committee has already recommended that we discuss a revised version of the Government team's paper 'Realities and Common Themes'. I circulated a first draft to the Party leaders with my letter to them of 24 April. I intend it to provide a take-off point. It is clear from the comments received that further work is necessary, and I accordingly look to the Business Committee to address it [? later today and] next Monday and to ensure that a final text is available for discussion in plenary next Tuesday. That text will advert to themes on which I have dwelt this morning. In particular, it will identify the various political realities which the Government suggests must form the platform for our construction of a comprehensive political accommodation in relation to Northern Ireland. It will summarise the common ground which has emerged from the talks process so far. The objective is, of course, to identify not only the general principles which should inform our future discussions in at least 'Strand One' of the talks, but also the specific issues on which further discussion must now concentrate, if we are to make the speedy progress which the success of our Talks requires.

It will be for the Business Committee, as I have suggested, to consider the agenda for future plenary sessions. The Government Team have, however, prepared a further paper, designed to prompt discussion on the broad principles that should characterise any new political institutions in Northern Ireland. I believe that discussing the second paper could sharpen the focus in which the institutional issues can be seen. It may also help us, again with the help of the Business Committee, to identify specific matters which could expediently be remitted thereafter for consideration by any sub-committee we may choose for a specific purpose to establish. It will be circulated today, and the Business Committee will I hope look at it on Monday with a view to it aiding a possible discussion on institutional matters in resumed plenary later on Tuesday.

Conclusion

So now, Ladies and Gentlemen, to our muttons. Any peroration, whether flowery or restrained, would be out of keeping with the businesslike style I hope will characterise our proceedings. It will be my job to encourage that - so I must not set a bad example at the outset. It will surely suffice to say that a historic opportunity awaits us, and at a juncture which is uniquely propitious. May we each be equal to the hour: and

"May the blessing of Almighty God rest upon our counsels".