On the eve of the Assembly elections in the North of Ireland, will the Taoiseach join with me in appealing to people to exercise their franchise tomorrow, turn out and record their support for the progress achieved to date which I hope will be built upon in the coming weeks and months, thereby guaranteeing a better future for all citizens on the island?

Against the backdrop of the election, does the Taoiseach agree that, during the course of the summer, many leaders in communities and political parties, including Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party and others, played an heroic role in helping to defuse difficult situations which arose in what are sometimes termed "interface communities" and ensuring that many problems which could have arisen around contentious Orange marches did not take place? We had an important summer in terms of showing what can be achieved through collective and concerted efforts.

Does the Taoiseach also agree that there is great concern at the growing incidence of sectarian attacks in the North of Ireland? Only last Thursday, we saw the brutal murder of 21 year old James McMahon and the previous week, a man was subjected to an horrific machete attack. Does the Taoiseach agree that all these attacks deserve to be roundly condemned and the only way in which they can be properly addressed is through the same efforts being employed by community leaders and political parties as was demonstrated during the summer?

The Taoiseach is meeting the British Prime Minister later this week. In following on from these terrible events we witnessed, including the tragic death of Mr. McMahon, will the Taoiseach raise these ongoing sectarian attacks with the British Prime Minister?

As always, I utterly condemn all sectarian attacks. Those engaged in carrying them out do an injustice to the huge number of people who want to see progress and peace in Northern Ireland. I condemn the tragic circumstances of the death of James McMahon last week. The PSNI has already given its view on where it believes responsibility for that murder and events surrounding it lies. It has been quite categorical in that.

There is no doubt the pro-Agreement parties and many community organisations worked extremely hard and co-operated well during the summer. I had the opportunity before, during and after the summer of discussing this issue with all the groups, including, for the first time, the loyalist commission. Everyone worked extremely hard to deal with the issues. However, as the Deputy pointed out, there have recently been a number of signs which are a cause for concern.

As I said over the weekend, I hope people turn out for the Assembly elections tomorrow. It is the first time since 22 May 1998 that people have had an opportunity to vote for the Assembly. It is important that there is strong commitment to and support for the Good Friday Agreement, the Assembly, the Executive and the North-South bodies. Every report published in recent years has shown the benefits which have accrued to the people of Northern Ireland because of the Agreement. I hope politicians will receive a good mandate to continue the institutions and the Government remains ready to continue the effort to get full implementation of the Agreement after the elections.

Is the Taoiseach aware that, in the period from July to the end of last month, there were at least 160 such sectarian attacks, including over 50 pipe and petrol bomb attacks, a stabbing, the beating of a pregnant woman who lost her child and several attempted abductions? We have also seen many attacks on Catholic homes and schools. We have already indicated, and I have no doubt it is the shared view of all opinion in the House, that sectarianism in all its manifestations must be rejected and condemned. Will the Taoiseach join me in so doing? There is only one way in which this can be addressed, as demonstrated in other parts of the North of Ireland, the Border counties and elsewhere. It is only through concerted leadership, good example and the collective efforts of community and political leaders that the scourge of sectarianism can be rooted out of Irish society.

I reiterate that there have been many attacks, examples of intimidation and other events. There is no need to discuss the detail of these, regardless of who originated or was involved in them, but I reject them all. We must hope that after the election we will be in a position to move on, to try to have the Agreement implemented, to get the institutions functioning, to encourage cross-party co-operation and to deal with issues such as policing. Respect must be fostered and progress made on these issues in order to deal with the type of occurrences to which the Deputy refers. It is clear that there are acts outside the law which are dangerous and undermine everything we are trying to achieve. I look forward, after the election, to joining the parties to try to deal with these matters as quickly as possible.