Article by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ray Burke T.D., for the News of the World

This is a time of hope in Ireland; a moment of historic opportunity. On 15 September the British and Irish Governments will be launching political negotiations which will be open to all the main political parties in Northern Ireland. Our aim is to reach agreement by next May on a comprehensive agreement which will be put to the people of Ireland in referendums - North and South - for their approval.

While nobody can pretend that these negotiations will be easy, they take place against an encouraging background. Firstly, they will proceed in a peaceful environment, thanks to the IRA and loyalist ceasefires. Secondly they are sponsored by newly elected Governments in London and Dublin which have brought new dynamism and imagination to the peace process. Thirdly, unlike the talks over the past 15 months, they are unlikely to be distracted by elections in Northern Ireland.

This week's decision to invite Sinn Féin to the negotiations should be welcome to all those who wish to see peace in Ireland. The Irish Government has worked hard to bring Sinn Féin to the negotiating table because we believe that it's only through dialogue and discussion that we can effectively address and resolve the differences which divide the people of Ireland. Violence can never achieve this. On the contrary, it only deepens divisions.

What is needed in Northern Ireland is a new beginning. No more bombs, no more murders, no more intimidation and, consequently, no more heavy security presence. We need to create a society at peace with itself, where all can feel equal and and enjoy a shared sense of belonging.

We must build a new structured relationship between North and South, involving substantial North-South bodies. Attitudes are changing rapidly on both sides of the Border and we should look forward to a new productive engagement. We can achieve much by working together, particularly in terms of generating mutual economic development leading to shared prosperity. The common sense of such an approach and such a relationship defies contradiction. Neither can the importance of meaningful North-South bodies to the nationalist community be overstated.

We must also address the relationship between the people of Ireland and Britain and between the British and Irish Governments. However troubled our history might be, the people of these islands have a unique relationship, based on family ties, friendships, and shared cultural and linguistic experience. Over recent years, the people of Britain have also suffered violence and disruption arising from the conflict in Northern Ireland. It is to the credit of people on both sides of the Irish Sea that this has not been allowed to undermine our close friendship. The negotiations which are about to start are intended to banish the ghost of conflict to history and to bring out all that is positive and progressive in our relationship.

We have, therefore, to address three sets of relationships in the forthcoming negotiations: those within Northern Ireland, those between North and South, and those between the peoples of these islands. Both Governments are agreed that for any agreement which may emerge from the negotiations to have widespread support, it will need to give adequate expression to the totality of all three relationships.

For any agreement to work, it must have widespread support among the people. Neither Government is interested in imposing a solution. Both Governments are fully committed to the principle of consent. According to this principle, there can be no change in the status of Northern Ireland other than with the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland. Successive Irish Governments have affirmed their commitment to this principle in the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Downing Street Declaration and the Framework Document.

However, the principle of consent also requires that any new arrangements have the consent of the governed. In a society such as Northern Ireland, where the minority community comprises 43% of the population and is itself in a majority across much of Northern Ireland, the consent of the governed surely requires the consent of both communities.

The Governments recognised the two-sided nature of the principle of consent by building into the present negotiations the mechanism of sufficient consensus, whereby agreement within the negotiations would require the support of both Governments and of parties representing a majority in both the unionist and nationalist communities.

Also, by undertaking that any agreement must be approved by referendums, North and South, the Governments have done all they can to reassure both communities that no outcome will be imposed.

Unfortunately fears still remain. This is not surprising because it is clear that there can be no agreement that does not involve real change and a break with past attitudes. In a society such as Northern Ireland, so evenly divided between two communities - each with its own symbols, traditions and aspirations - the only viable solution will be one based on sharing, equality and mutual respect . This will undoubtedly require concessions on all sides.

There are hesitations too, I know, in relation to the decommissioning of paramilitary arms. This is a matter of considerable concern to the Irish Government. We are firmly committed to the disarmament of all paramilitary organisations. The Irish police have enjoyed some notable recent successes in seizing illegally-held arms and they will continue their efforts in this regard.

However, together with the British Government, we are also seeking to persuade the paramilitary organisations to engage in the voluntary decommissioning of their arms. We are convinced that the only realistic means of achieving this is in the context of comprehensive and political negotiations leading to a lasting peaceful settlement.

Last Tuesday, I signed an international agreement with the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, providing for the establishment of an Independent Commission to facilitate the decommissioning of paramilitary arms. We are currently engaged in putting in place the remaining arrangements to ensure that the Commission can start work alongside the political negotiations on 15 September.

We cannot force the paramilitary organisations to give up their weapons, but we can seek to encourage them to do so by working to bring about progress on decommissioning alongside progress in the substantive political negotiations.

I hope that all eligible parties will have the confidence to come to the table when political negotiations begin on 15 September. Surely, no party should allow the interests of those it represents to go by default. Those at the table should be given the opportunity to listen to the concerns of all so that we might address them together.

Of course, each party will come with its own views and its own preferred outcome. But every participant at the table will have signed up to the Mitchell Principles which commit them to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in the negotiations and to use democratic and exclusively peaceful methods to change any aspect of that agreement with which they may disagree.

The people of Northern Ireland - across both communities - have shown great courage and fortitude in facing up to the troubles of the past. What is required now is courage of a different kind. The courage to reach out, to engage in dialogue, to show imagination, and to enter into compromise. With this kind of courage we can construct a lasting and comprehensive agreement which will see the gun and the bomb forever removed from the political life of these islands.Top