Northern Ireland Assembly Election

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

There is a limited period under law in which to form a new Executive; it is around three weeks following a poll. That is why I make the point about maintaining open dialogue and thinking about how we can bring parties together. There has to be a sense of commanding support from across the community, which is why we need to listen very keenly and intently to the voices of the hon. Gentleman’s party and other parties on the process ahead. I stress the need to hold dialogue and discussions, and to focus on the principles in the Belfast agreement and its successors—those things to which all parties have signed up. That provides us with the framework, and we need to get on and do it.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

As we face this phase of challenges, it is right that we should mourn the passing of Dermot Gallagher, former doyen of the Department of Foreign Affairs and one of the lynchpins for so much of this process, bringing us from transfixed to transactions to transformations. We need to emulate his purposeful ethic in the time ahead. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Will the Secretary of State recognise that, after the elections, there will be negotiations, and that those negotiations will have to be more inclusive, more comprehensive and more fundamental than what passed for negotiations in Stormont House? The outcome will have to be more robust and more reliable than the political Febreze that we got with the “Fresh Start” agreement.

[James Brokenshire]

I certainly pay tribute to Dermot Gallagher, and send my condolences to his friends and family and all those who remember him and his contribution. As I have said, I do not want to prejudge the outcome of this election, nor indeed of discussions that will take place. I earnestly want that to be achieved throughout this election period, in whatever way possible. I also want to see that in the discussions that take place afterwards. We must achieve a position that creates stability and a sense of shared power arrangements, as that will allow Northern Ireland to move on. That must be our focus and our intention, and it is why I make the point about being very thoughtful and conscious the nature of the campaign, so that we can bring people back together afterwards.