The decision to allow the Orange Order to march down Garvaghy Road was the most destabilising decision that has been made in the North of Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement. Twenty eight years of improved community relations are now in jeopardy. The people in the North are in real fear. It is hard maybe for people in the South to understand that and the stress that has been created. There were 21 Catholics murdered in crimes related to the Drumcree stand-off in the nineties. The most horrific of those was the burning to death of three Quinn children in their own home. Orange marches have been the fuse for violence for 300 years. The start of the Troubles can be traced back to Orange marches. The Taoiseach rightly said this decision is wrong and incomprehensible but the logic of that is that it should be reversed. The Government is a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. What influence is the Taoiseach bringing to bear on the British Prime Minister to reverse this decision?

There are two things. As the Deputy knows, the Parades Commission is independent so the Irish Government does not have influence over it in that sense.

The British do.

Neither does the British Government because it is meant to be independent of everybody.

The Secretary of State can change it.

I know but let me answer the question to give context to it. The courts are independent so they have reached various adjudications. I have made my comments on the original decision of the Parades Commission. The Minister for foreign affairs has been in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Not everybody sees it the way we see it. We need to put that on the table as well. Therefore, we have to try to work collectively to build on the platform of good community relations that developed over the years and seek a pathway forward through mediation so that we do not have a return to the trauma of the past and can avoid a situation like this ever unfolding again.