Peace Process (Hansard, 27 April 1995)

§ 6. Mr. Winnick
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the latest developments in the peace process in Northern Ireland. [19612]

§ Sir Patrick Mayhew
Following intensive exchanges with Sinn Fein, we have told it that we believe that a sufficient basis now exists for ministerial entry into exploratory dialogue. Arrangements are being made for a meeting at which the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes (Mr. Ancram), will lead the Government team.

§ Mr. Winnick
That is most welcome. Has not the peace process that has been in operation for the past seven months been a tremendous relief to the people of Northern Ireland, after sustained terror and destruction over 25 years? Although I fully accept what the Secretary of State has already told the House about the decommissioning of weapons, and that Sinn Fein should certainly repudiate all forms of terrorist violence, is not the last thing we want in Britain, Northern Ireland or the Irish Republic a sort of breakaway group, repudiating what Sinn Fein may or may not do and, once again, as in 1970, starting the cycle of terrorist violence?

§ Sir Patrick Mayhew
Naturally, we want to avoid that. There is no place for violence in any democracy. I am grateful that the hon. Gentleman, who takes an interest in these matters, supports what I have said and, for that matter, what the Taoiseach, Mr. Bruton, has very recently said in the Dail about the impossibility of entering into substantive talks while an implication remains that the use of violence is on the cards. That is very important.
It is essential that the Government continue to maintain their long-established and consistently held position that a proper place exists at the conference table for all parties that are democratically mandated to any substantial extent, that have made it absolutely clear that they are committed to a democratic means of approaching political purposes and that have set aside any connection with the use of violence.

§ Mr. Hume
Does the Secretary of State agree that the basis of order, which is the basis of stability in any society, has never existed in Northern Ireland since its foundation, that that is based on agreement on how people are governed and that its absence has created the terrible symptoms, such as 50 years of discrimination, violence and killing in every decade, and the terrible 25 years that we have just been through? Does he now agree that the past eight months have given, as the hon. Member for Walsall, North (Mr. Winnick) said, the greatest hope that our people have ever had? Would the Secretary of State please advise his Back Benchers to keep their negative mouths shut, because all they are doing is undermining that great new atmosphere among the people? May I 972 appeal to his Government, whom I consistently praise for putting this dproblem at the top of their agenda, where it belongs—I thank him totally for that—to move swiftly now to get all parties to that table to create the basis of order and stability: agreement on how we are governed?

§ Sir Patrick Mayhew
I accept what the hon. Gentleman has said about agreement being the basis for stability and for order. That is so not just in Northern Ireland; it is so in every civilised and democratic society. That is the first point.
The second is that I acknowledge that the basis of the division of the community in Northern Ireland is one that denies—that has denied in the past—a necessary element of agreement; I accept that. That is why I welcome the part that the hon. Gentleman and all the other leaders of the constitutional parties have played in recognising the need to sit down together and to fashion a new beginning in relationships that will yield greater agreement.
I was sorry that the hon. Gentleman made those allusions to negative attitudes among Conservative Back Benchers. I would have thought that there was a very unwelcome and uncharacteristically negative contribution by his hon. Friend the Member for Newry and Armagh (Mr. Mallon) a minute or two ago. We have been working for exactly what the hon. Member for Foyle (Mr. Hume) describes. I am glad that that has achieved what I hope and believe is the understanding that I mentioned a few moments ago.