All of us in this House hold the peace process dear. In particular since the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement, there has been a genuine cross-party desire to maintain momentum towards peace and in particular, advancing political stability in Northern Ireland. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that recent events have caused much concern. There is a genuine sense of drift in terms of both respect for institutions in Northern Ireland and for the ongoing momentum of the peace process itself and the institutions under the Good Friday Agreement.

The withdrawal of the leaders of Unionism from the talks process relating to the past, flags and parading is in many ways a sign of profound political failure. The fact that the decision of an independent statutory parades commission has caused the First Minister and others to leave the talks and begin a graduated response of protest raises a number of fundamental questions. The first is the manner in which parading is adjudicated within Northern Ireland. Are both governments now looking afresh at that even in the context of the Haass talks where the emerging momentum had been to move parading into the offices of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to decide and arbitrate upon and away from an independent parades commission? The second question is the political recognition of the primacy of the rule of law, in other words, that leading politicians in Northern Ireland, irrespective of whether an adjudication comes from an independent institution or not, feel free on any whim to protest at that and remove themselves from a talks process or indeed from the North-South Ministerial Council last week. It does not just involve Unionist leaders. We saw this in terms of the PSNI and policing. When Deputy Adams was arrested, Sinn Féin said that its support for policing was now questionable or could be threatened if he was not released. That also happened on a previous occasion when somebody was arrested. This idea of the political recognition of the primacy of law is central to political stability in Northern Ireland and I ask the Taoiseach to comment on that.

I know the Taoiseach has had meetings with various parties. He has had talks with the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. Is it the view of the Government that the Taoiseach will become re-engaged in a hands-on way with the process in Northern Ireland, particularly in the context of the talks on the past, parading, flags and such like in order to inject fresh momentum into a process which has illustrated a dangerous sense of drift in recent years?

I thank Deputy Martin for his comments and question. I am very concerned about the escalation of events in Northern Ireland in the recent past. In the course of one day last week, we saw Unionist withdrawal from the Parades Commission, the all-party talks and the North-South Ministerial Council. This has very serious implications. I note that the Unionist parties announced a graduated response, whatever is meant by that. The first indication was in respect of non-attendance at the North-South Ministerial Council. It is true to say that the entire House should be concerned about the potential for an escalation to conflict and unwanted violence on 12 July with particular reference to the flash point that could occur at the shops on the Ardoyne Road.

I spoke to Mr. Cameron on Sunday and discussed this matter with him by telephone for a number of minutes in regard to the need for both governments to be very vigilant as to what contingency plans might be put in place. I advised the Prime Minister that we will send over senior personnel from Departments here to London this week to engage with their counterparts. Yesterday evening, I spoke to David Ford of the Alliance Party in respect of justice matters in Northern Ireland. He is obviously quite concerned about this. Last evening I also met the SDLP and Sinn Féin to get their views on the need for rational thinking and clear heads in respect of the next period and the implications of what lies ahead in September and October.

The Prime Minister, for his part, has made it clear that while he and his government are supportive of the Good Friday Agreement and the process that the Executive and the parties in Northern Ireland had negotiated and worked on before eventually being given devolved authority for a range of activities, the challenge is to make that system work.

I regret very much that the Unionist parties, both the DUP and the UUP, appear to have moved from a position of centrality on the Agreement to a point somewhere right of that. I also note that some of the Unionist groupings have called for peaceful measures this weekend and I hope that will be the outcome of this weekend's parades and marches.

I agree with the Deputy that when a Parades Commission, with its independent and statutory authority, makes a decision, it should be complied with. The parties I spoke to yesterday - the SDLP and Sinn Féin - both indicated that they would have been supportive of the commission irrespective of the decision it made. This weekend has the potential for serious conflict. I hope that calmer minds will see to it that that does not happen. The PSNI, for its part, has said it will implement the law in so far as the Parades Commission decision is concerned.

In so far as the involvement of the British Government is concerned, I have had requests to make contact with the US as well in regard to maintaining a focus on having the Agreement implemented in full and pushed forward. I thank the Deputy for his question. For now, we are conscious of the potential implications of this. We are in contact with the British Government and the Northern Ireland parties and I hope those involved will see to it that there is no escalation of violence or outrageous behaviour, as has happened on a number of occasions. It is potentially very serious.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. There is a need for him and the British Prime Minister to meet urgently and then, in consultation with the parties in Northern Ireland, to draw up a framework to create fresh momentum in the political situation in the North and create a new agenda to move the process onwards.

A community relations council report to the Assembly this week was disturbing in respect of the revelations - if one could call them that - concerning the significant underachievement in education, health and social areas among a significant proportion of the population of west and north Belfast, particularly among specific groupings. The statistic are damning and it is worrying with regard to the future for young people - young males, in particular - in those areas in the context of their having a sense of engagement with society and a sense of future and ownership in that society in respect of education participation, employment and so on.

Looking at the medium term, if we get over this difficult phase, there is an urgent need on behalf of both governments to up their game in the level of their engagement and to create a new agenda to drive forward stability within Northern Ireland that involves a socioeconomic dimension as well. I put that to the Taoiseach in good faith.

Have the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach made it clear to all the political leaders in Northern Ireland that they cannot pick and choose in the context of political recognition of the primacy of the rule of law, whether it is the decisions of the PSNI in prosecuting particular cases or the Parades Commission in the independent adjudication it may make on particular parades, and that it is not on for the First Minister or the Deputy First Minister to decide when they show confidence in those institutions and when they do not? Their performance in recent times has undermined public confidence in shared institutions. It took a great deal of work to build them up, and what can the public expect if the leaders are not behaving in a responsible and reasonable manner?

I agree that in some cases there seems to be a feeling of utter hopelessness and despair about where this now appears to be headed. For that reason, I asked the Prime Minister to consider speaking to the First Minister. He was to speak to the Secretary of State but I cannot confirm whether he spoke to the DUP leader.

I note the report the Deputy mentioned about the implications for young people regarding education and so on. There is also a decision to be made in respect of welfare reform which could lead to a substantial cutback in finance for facilities of up to €650 million, which clearly has implications for the Executive and the way it goes about its business. That was partly the reason additional moneys were put in under the PEACE IV agreement arising from the Presidency last year - to deal with the sensitive communities mentioned by the Deputy.

I do not have any difficulty arranging a meeting with the British Prime Minister if that is necessary. I agreed with him on Sunday that we would both continue to monitor this closely from Dublin and London and to engage with the parties, and I committed myself to that in the meetings and discussions I had yesterday. I have not spoken directly to the First Minister. Obviously, I recommended that the Prime Minister engage with him in the first instance, but it is a case of hoping to get through this weekend without any escalation of violence and making contingency arrangements for what is best for the future. This is a sensitive period and, clearly, the period ahead between September and Christmas is crucial to putting the peace process and the move to fully implement the Good Friday Agreement back on track.