- Madam President, twenty five years ago, shortly after the birth of my daughter, somebody came into my room, turned on the television set and said "Look your country is burning down". Twenty-five years later, my daughter is a symbol for me of the time that has passed in the generation that knew nothing but violence in Northern Ireland. That is why it is a particular joy today to be taking part in this historic debate. Many people have contributed to this day. Of course, we must first of all acknowledge the great achievement of our colleague John Hume - and I would also like to say of his wife Pat, because all too often in the midst of momentous political events people lose sight of the back-up team for the great leaders and I would like to pay tribute to Pat.

I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Dr. Gareth Fitzgerald and to another person who has not received a very good press in this Parliament, Margaret Thatcher, for their achievement in signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement. This was the forerunner to the Downing Street Declaration and now to the Peace Declaration. I think it is terribly important that we recognise that it has been a long, arduous, patient and sometimes heart-breaking process that has brought us to this day. All of us must resist the temptation to demonize one side and canonize the other because both these opinions are unrealistic.

We are looking now at the new Northern Ireland. We are starting out on an exciting process. There will be huge changes. An enormous number of people have worked in the security services, they will have to find new jobs, please God, in the years to come. They will have to find new skills in the years to come and that is where we can participate most actively and most positively in this Parliament.

There will be massive re-training. I hope perhaps that we can see Northern Ireland enjoying the success, for example, in the audio-visual and cinema production which we are now experiencing in the Republic. I hope we will see considerably more joint North-South trade, a joint tourism policy.

But now is the time for some of the human processes to take place. Now is the time for us to get to know each other because we do not know each other. Now is the time to help each other because we have not been helping each other on a person-to-person basis in the way we possibly could have if there had not been this violence. Most important of all: now is the time, and I say this particularly to Mr Paisley, now is the time to forgive each other for all our past transgressions. Thank you.