[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 10, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE IRISH PEACE PROCESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, first let me say how happy I am to see our 
Speaker, the gentleman from New Jersey, who I would mention to my 
colleagues was the Speaker of the General Assembly in the State of New 
Jersey, so he certainly knows what to do in the Speaker's chair. Great 
to see you up there this evening.
  I come to the floor this evening to once again call on Dr. Ian 
Paisley and the Democratic Unionist Party to support peace and justice 
in Northern Ireland and not get in the way of creating a truly devolved 
government. I call on my colleagues to support the ``New Beginning'' 
policy envisioned in the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent 
Patten Report, even as Northern Ireland tackles the controversial issue 
of setting up a fair and effective criminal justice system.
  British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called Sinn Fein's leadership 
under President Gerry Adams ``remarkable,'' and I certainly agree. 
Despite a long history of unfair treatment and attacks by unionist 
paramilitaries and others, Sinn Fein is moving down the path to 
devolution by supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland and 
working with the criminal justice system.
  In order for the citizens of Northern Ireland to have a police force 
they can respect and cooperate with, they need to be assured that power 
sharing will be restored and officials will ensure sufficient 
accountability to prevent the types of abuses that have plagued the 
Catholic community in the north for so long.
  Mr. Speaker, the community of Northern Ireland and all of the 
political parties must be involved in the process to create a New 
Beginning to Policing. Since the Patten Commission Report in September 
1999, much progress has been made in terms of increased recruiting of 
Catholic officers, establishment of district policing boards, and 
increased oversight and accountability of the police service. The St. 
Andrews Agreement, issued this past year, showed that the path to 
restoring critical political institutions should include support for 
and devolution of policing.
  Sinn Fein has taken the bold step of moving forward to support the 
policing institutions, and now Dr. Paisley seems to want to stay in the 
past instead of recognizing that it is time to move forward with a 
police service and a government that respects and represents all the 
people of Northern Ireland.
  Mr. Speaker, I again commend Gerry Adams, the leadership of Sinn 
Fein, Prime Minister Blair, and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahearn, for all 
their hard work and courage in moving the peace process forward. It 
will not be easy to overcome the troubling history of discrimination 
and distrust between communities in Northern Ireland. I hope, however, 
that Dr. Paisley and the membership of the Democratic Unionist Party 
will put aside the politics of the past and become a partner in moving 
towards a just and lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

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