The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: Northern Ireland Peace Process

  • Mr Major’s Comments on Northern Ireland – 29 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on Northern Ireland, made during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, made in London on Thursday 29th December 1994.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked whether an elected body was achievable and what would be achieved in the next 12 months].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think it is impossible to say how far we will have gone. Most people looking back twelve months ago would not have imagined the progress that has been made in the last year. It will remain in the centre of the agenda, I think that is entirely clear. I hope very soon we will be able to agree a framework document with the Irish Government; we will then publish that so that everyone in Northern Ireland can see what is in it. I hope we will be able to get through the preliminary talks with Sinn Fein and the Loyalist paramilitaries and engage then in the mainstream talks amongst the political parties. I certainly hope to make that progress but quite how rapid that will be I can’t say.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked whether Sinn Fein sought a genuine settlement].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I very much hope so. I can’t see any advantage to Sinn Fein in not seeking a settlement if a satisfactory agreement can be reached, so I very much hope they are talking in good faith.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if he believed that Martin McGuinness was willing to do a deal]

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Only time will tell. I have never promised this will be easy and I have never promised that a satisfactory outcome was certain, for it isn’t, but I do believe we have a better chance than we have known at any stage in the last quarter of a century of reaching a settlement. A huge amount of progress has been made. Time and time again, people have said to me: “But you can’t overcome the next hurdle!” and we have overcome the next hurdle. There are many difficulties that lie immediately ahead, not least the question of the decommissioning of arms, but steadily they have been brushed to one side.

    What I think gives cause for the greatest optimism is the sheer effort of will amongst the people of Northern Ireland that they themselves wish to see a final agreement and the end of violence for good. Nobody should under-estimate the importance of that; that has its impact upon opinion, its impact upon opinion within Sinn Fein as well; provided that option remains rock solid – and I believe it will – then there is a very powerful impetus towards the move towards a settlement.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in London – 20 December 1994

    Below is Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview in London, with Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, held on Tuesday 20th December 1994.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am delighted this evening to have had the opportunity of welcoming the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste to London where we have had the chance for the last hour and a half of running over the present situation in the peace process in Northern Ireland and looking at some of the problems that lie ahead.

    If I could say at the outset I am delighted that we have been able to agree to have this meeting so speedily; I think it is the clearest possible evidence of the absolute priority that both the British Government and the Irish Government give to making further progress to entrench the ceasefire into a permanent peace process in Northern Ireland and I am delighted with the exchange of views that we have been able to have today. We have really been looking across the whole field of what has been agreed thus far and the steps that we need to take in the future.

    We have been able to agree over the last hour and a half that we will endeavour to complete the framework document as speedily as we can; we have deliberately not put an end-date on that; we would rather get it right than get it soon but certainly we wish to make progress as speedily as possible. With that in mind, we have agreed that our officials will meet in early January to take matters further and a few days after the officials meeting, there will be a meeting at Foreign Minister level to see what further progress can be made. The Taoiseach and I of course will remain in close touch by telephone or face-to-face as necessary throughout this period with the intention of carrying this process forward.

    We looked at the progress that has been made; I have discussed also the range of areas that we need to cover; we have discussed the preliminary talks that the British Government are engaged in both with Sinn Fein and with the Loyalist paramilitaries. There are many important issues to be determined in those talks, many in relationship to Sinn Fein, many in relationship to the Loyalist paramilitaries as well. We share the view that substantial progress needs to be made on the decommissioning of arms not just with Sinn Fein but also of course with the Loyalist paramilitaries as well and there are a range of other important issues that need to be discussed.

    I found this first meeting with the Taoiseach very refreshing; I am very encouraged about the determination that the Irish Government retains to continue to make progress in this matter. I am delighted we were able to meet so speedily and I shall very much look forward to our next meeting.

    I will invite the Taoiseach to say a few words about our meeting and then we will endeavour to take a few questions.

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    The important thing I would like to stress is that we have met so quickly after the new government came to power in the Republic. It is extremely important that both governments have shown by the prompt arrangements of this meeting how determined they both are to move forward on the peace process and also towards bringing the communities closer together on the island of Ireland. It is extremely important that the governments work together to achieve that objective. There are many difficult issues that remain to be settled both between us and between the parties involved. I think what this meeting shows is a resolution on the part of both governments to tackle these issues without any avoidable delay.

    There are of course many others whose views must be taken into account and we will on both our parts be listening and talking to all the other interests involved. The governments cannot act purely alone on this matter, they must bring public opinion with them, but I think this meeting so soon after the formation of the new government is an indication of our determination to do just that.

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I share that view entirely.

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (BELFAST TELEGRAPH):

    Has the Taoiseach confirmed or denied to you the assessment made by Albert Reynolds about the state of negotiations over the joint framework document that already agreement has been reached on the issues that he claimed were reached to that stage?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I am not going to comment on what Albert had to say last week. The Taoiseach and I certainly looked at the extent of agreement that exists in the joint framework document but rather more importantly, we were looking at the areas that remain to be agreed in the framework document and looked at how we might seek a way through those areas to find a final agreement; that is why we have agreed that we will have officials meet to carry on our discussion in early January and then Foreign Ministers thereafter.

    QUESTION:

    Are you in trouble?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    No. Our negotiations on the framework document are not in trouble. I think you would have been very surprised and everyone else would have been very surprised if we had been able to sit down in five minutes and agree a framework document.

    The Joint Declaration took many months to agree. We have made a lot of progress on the framework document but there are still areas to be decided. I think both the Taoiseach and I are optimistic about the prospects of reaching agreement on these other matters but they do have to be discussed. The Taoiseach will wish to add some words but I think he would share that view.

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    I would just like to add that I have had the opportunity of reviewing the framework document myself for the first time in the last few days and I would have to say that a great deal of progress has been made by the outgoing government and the British Government on that matter. There are a number of issues remaining to be resolved but I think that this meeting shows the determination on both our parts to resolve those issues quickly. We reviewed them in some depth at our meeting and while we didn’t resolve any of those issues I think we created a climate in which they can be resolved.

    QUESTION:

    Are you any clearer now on the way in which decommissioning of arms and explosives is going to take place and what are both your assessments of yesterday’s bomb in Enniskillen?

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    My view is that the decommissioning of arms is a very important issue; it is important that substantial progress be made on that issue in the present phase of preliminary discussions but it is one of a number of issues which have to be addressed; it is important to build confidence in the peace process as well.

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I agree with that. The mechanism of decommissioning is of course one of the matters that is going to need to be addressed in the preliminary talks.

    We have no confirmation yet of who was finally responsible for the Enniskillen incident.

    QUESTION:

    Taoiseach, can I ask you what are the outstanding disagreements, if you like, in your approach with Mr. Major on the question of the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons?

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    There isn’t an area of disagreement here. We both accept that this issue must be dealt with because as long as weapons remain in commission they remain a threat to the peace of everybody living on these islands. There is obviously an importance in dealing with this issue but it is important also to deal with other issues and to show that there is a peace dividend.

    QUESTION:

    What priority do you put on the question of the decommissioning of arms?

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    We would put a high priority on it in conjunction with a number of other issues.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, both Gerry Adams and John Hume have said today that they would like to see all-inclusive talks much sooner than seems to be the case. How soon do you think there might be all-inclusive talks?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    I would like to see all-inclusive talks as speedily as possible but we can’t get all-inclusive talks unless we can clear some of the difficulties that stand in the way of them in the preliminary talks. The speedier we can do that, the speedier we can have inclusive talks. I very much welcome that. The sooner we can sit down with the political representatives of all shades of opinion in Northern Ireland, the happier I will be but there is no point in proceeding to that if we haven’t cleared the ground properly and some of the main participants then decline to come to the table and that of course is what the preliminary talks are about so I share a view entirely that has been expressed by Mr. Hume and indeed by Mr. Adams if he has expressed that view, that the sooner we can get to inclusive talks the better but inclusive talks with a lot of empty chairs are not inclusive talks.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, do you both agree on the point that Sinn Fein cannot be involved in those all-inclusive talks, that they can’t be involved with Ministers, until the issue of the arms has been from your point of view satisfactorily resolved and the weapons are destroyed?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    We are looking for substantial progress. We have made that clear from the start. You addressed the question as far as Sinn Fein is concerned and that is true but the same point applies also of course to the Loyalist paramilitaries. We do need to see some substantial progress made on this issue and I very much hope that we will get it.

    QUESTION:

    Does “substantial progress” still mean that the weapons have to be destroyed and that has to be verified?

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    We do need to make sure that substantial progress has been made and that means that weapons that otherwise would have been available for use against peaceable people in Northern Ireland are not able to be used and are not in commission.

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    It is important to point out that the preliminary discussions with Sinn Fein are at a comparatively early point at this stage; there have been I believe as far as the British Government is concerned only two such meetings and obviously there is a very large agenda to be dealt with of which the decommissioning of arms is a very important element but not the only one.

    PRIME MINISTER MAJOR:

    Let me just add that we have a meeting with the Loyalist paramilitaries in the next few days and we have the next meeting with Sinn Fein agreed at their request in the middle of January.

    QUESTION:

    Is the change of the Irish Government going to slow down or speed up this process do you feel?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    All I can say is I am delighted at the speed with which the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste accepted my invitation to come to London. I think that shows that they share the same determination as their predecessor government to make speedy progress, effectively progress and lasting progress towards peace. I have no doubt about their wish to do that and I believe after our meeting today they have no doubt about our determination to achieve that either.

    PRIME MINISTER BRUTON:

    I would like to say emphatically that it is the intention of the Tanaiste and I that our discussions will speed up the process.

  • PMQT – 15 December 1994

    Below is the text of Prime Minister’s Question Time from 15th December 1994.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Q1. Mrs. Roche: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 December.

    The Prime Minister (Mr. John Major): This morning, I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.

    Mrs. Roche: Given today’s news that British Gas retail staff, who earn an average of £13,000 a year, will be asked to take a pay cut while the chief executive will receive a pay rise of 75 per cent., does the Prime Minister share the opinion of the deputy chairman of the Conservative party that, under the present Government, the rich are getting richer on the backs of the rest?

    The Prime Minister: I am a little surprised that the hon. Lady should mention that matter, in the light of what her hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor had to say on the radio a couple of hours ago.

     

    Q2. Mr. Hawkins: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 December.

    The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Hawkins: In the light of this week’s welcome further fall in unemployment, has my right hon. Friend met a single business man who supports the Labour party’s demand for a minimum wage, which would destroy so many jobs in constituencies such as mine in Blackpool?

    The Prime Minister: I cannot be sure that there is none who would, but certainly the overwhelming opinion is to the contrary. Even the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, East (Mr. Prescott) has in the past used the expression that there would be some jobs “shakeout”, or words to that effect. That means, of course, that people will lose their jobs. The right hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) has said that a minimum wage would have a potential jobs impact. He can hardly believe that it would be a favourable jobs impact. I think, therefore, that hon. Members on the Opposition Front Bench tend to agree that jobs would be lost by that policy.

    Mr. Blair: Will the Prime Minister confirm that, by next year, the chief executive of British Gas will earn in one week what his employees, who are now confronted with job cuts and pay cuts, earn in one year? Is it not time that he took a grip on those privatised utilities and put a stop to excesses that are offensive to the British sense of justice?

    The Prime Minister: The right hon. Gentleman will have to decide whether he wishes to have a private sector with rigid Government controls over every aspect of it, in which case it is not a private sector, or to renationalise industries such as gas, in which case he should make his position entirely clear. He might also clear his lines with his hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown) because my answer to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs. Roche) applies also to the right hon. Gentleman.

    Mr. Blair: Since these industries are regulated, why could they not be regulated to put a stop to those excesses? Is not the point one of efficiency as well as justice because, if we want a modern motivated work force, we can have it only on the basis of investment, partnership and fairness, not on the old Tory notion of greed at the top and insecurity for the rest?

    The Prime Minister: A couple of hours ago the shadow Chancellor was asked:

    “Surely there is nothing you could do, could you, about wage rates within an industry? You are surely not going to start interfering with that again, are you?”

    To that, the hon. Gentleman said:

    “No, these are matters for negotiation between the unions and the employers.”

    They should sort their lines out themselves before they criticise us.

    Mr. Blair: The issue is not the market conditions of British Gas but the contrast between the treatment of the chief executive and those ordinary staff who are facing pay cuts. I understand that the Cabinet has its own committee looking into these matters. If the Prime Minister has such a committee, why will he not accept the suggestion put forward from the Opposition Benches that where there are excessive pay increases at the top the regulator should act to stop them?

    The Prime Minister: The right hon. Gentleman knows that that is not a matter for the regulator. He is being wholly inconsistent. One day he complains about the British Gas monopoly, the next day he complains when British Gas faces competition and cuts its cloth accordingly. In one sense he opposes monopoly, in another sense he opposes competition. The reality is that he just opposes the private sector. What the right hon. Gentleman is doing is what he and his colleagues have done so often–find a grievance, whatever it is, and use that grievance for partisan interest in the interests of the Labour party.

     

    Q3. Sir Anthony Durant: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 December.

    The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave some moments ago.

    Sir Anthony Durant: My right hon. Friend will be aware that today is the anniversary of the Downing street declaration. I congratulate him on the progress that is being made in Northern Ireland towards a lasting peace and the announced inward investment and on the atmosphere that has improved so much in Northern Ireland, which he found in Portadown yesterday. Conservative Members believe that unless we get rid of the explosives and the firearms of the IRA, the UVF and the UFF, we will not be able to make the progress that we should.

    The Prime Minister: I share that view. Firearms, explosives and detonators, whether held by the IRA or by the loyalist paramilitaries, need to be decommissioned. As I said yesterday, I am not concerned whether they are surrendered; I am concerned that they are decommissioned and destroyed so that they can no longer be used to disrupt the democratic life of Northern Ireland. That is the important matter. That does have to be discussed and it does have to be acted upon during the preliminary discussions that are taking place at the moment. If progress is not made on that, not only, in my judgment, would the other democratic parties in Northern Ireland politics not sit down with those who retain those weapons, but nor should any British Government.

    Mr. Ashdown: Given the damage that has been done by indecision and division over Bosnia in the past, will the Prime Minister tell us what his response will be to the French proposal to be put to NATO on Monday to secure Sarajevo airport and to open a route to the sea in order to reinforce the UN’s humanitarian operations and to make more secure the position of our troops there in the future?

    The Prime Minister: Of course, we consider carefully anything that would secure the position of our troops and the right hon. Gentleman should know better than to suggest that we would do otherwise. I wish that he would not repeatedly undersell and undermine what is done there by British troops, United Nations troops and the Government. He has done nothing but grandstand on this issue from the commencement of the matter. If he really understood a little more about it, he might say a little less about it.

    Mr. Peter Ainsworth: Does my right hon. Friend agree that employees should be encouraged to take stakes in the companies that they work for? Does not he think it odd that the Labour party attacks share options, particularly bearing in mind the extent to which its leader and various of his “luvvie” friends seem to have benefited from them?

    The Prime Minister: I certainly think that it is right to extend share ownership as widely as possible. In the past 15 years, there has been a dramatic extension of share ownership. That has entrenched the private sector and private enterprise. It has done a great deal for the individual security of people owning shares. We shall certainly continue those policies. It would be welcome to have a cross-party consensus on it.

     

    Q4. Mr. McGrady: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 December.

    The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. McGrady: I thank the Prime Minister for his reply. Will he join me in congratulating the Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland, and may I thank him personally for the great contribution and excellent launch of the Investment Forum drive in Belfast this week? He and, I hope, all hon. Members will pray that it bears immediate and urgent fruit. Having launched the Investment Forum, and having begun demilitarisation talks with the republican and loyalist paramilitaries, does he agree that the most urgent and pressing need in Northern Ireland is the recommencement of political dialogue, which must perforce await completion of the framework document? Will he assure the House today that, with the creation of the new Government in the Republic of Ireland under the new Taoiseach, John Bruton, the Government will act urgently to complete the framework document so that the two Governments and the political parties can negotiate a lasting political settlement in Northern Ireland?

    The Prime Minister: I am grateful for what the hon. Gentleman had to say about the IDB, officials in the Northern Ireland Office and the investment conference held yesterday. No one who attended the conference has any doubt that it was a tremendous success not only in the new investments that were announced yesterday, but in the number of new investments that may arise as a result of the conference. The atmosphere was quite astonishing, as everyone who attended will know.

    On the second half of the hon. Gentleman’s question, clearly it is desirable to recontinue the political dialogue as soon as possible. I have written already to the new Taoiseach, Mr. Bruton, to say that I look forward to meeting him as soon as possible. I am confident that the new Irish Government will wish to sustain together the work that we have done over Northern Ireland. We wish to recommence discussions on the framework document and, I hope, conclude it as speedily as possible. But I would rather take a little longer over the document and get it right than deal with it too speedily and perhaps not have it right.

    Mr. Dunn: What advice will the Prime Minister offer to the people of Islington who are entitled to say that, if local education is not good enough for the Leader of the Opposition, it is not good enough for them?

    The Prime Minister: I suspect that it is not only the Leader of the Opposition who has not found the education system satisfactory in Islington, although the right hon. Gentleman shakes his head so perhaps he does find it satisfactory after all. We need the highest quality of education in Islington not just for the right hon. Gentleman, of course, but for every Islington resident whose children attend schools there.

     

    Maltese Double Cross

    Q5. Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Prime Minister what is the outcome of the investigation, referred to in his letter to the hon. Member for Linlithgow of 29 November, of the scrutiny of the film “Maltese Double Cross” by those involved in the investigation; and who were those involved to whom he referred.

    The Prime Minister: The Crown Office and Dumfries and Galloway police are still considering the contents of the film.

    Mr. Dalyell: Is it not a matter of record that on 19 September 1989 the then Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Parkinson–in good faith, quite certainly–offered the British relatives of the victims of Lockerbie a public inquiry on the condition that it was agreed by his colleagues? Which colleague vetoed that, and why did she do it?

    The Prime Minister: My understanding of what I believe the hon. Gentleman has in mind is a little different from that implied by him. I am advised that in 1990 Lord Parkinson undertook to consider with colleagues the case for a confidential inquiry. When, subsequently, a decision was taken to hold the fatal accident inquiry, the case for a second inquiry fell away. I am advised that that was explained and accepted at the time by the relatives.

     

    Engagements

    Q6. Mrs. Ray Michie: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 15 December.

    The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Lady to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mrs. Michie: Is the Prime Minister aware that the London to Crianlarich and Fort William and other sleeper trains are to be axed? That is no scare story. It signals the death knell of many vital rural services in Scotland and is due entirely to the Prime Minister’s chaotic and damaging privatisation scheme.

    The Prime Minister: Unless the hon. Lady is talking about a different service, I understand that sleeper services from London to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness will be safeguarded for the first time. If she has other detailed questions about other services, I suggest that she addresses them to the Secretaries of State for Transport or for Scotland.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in Belfast (III) – 14 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview held outside the Europa Hotel, in Belfast, on 14th December 1994.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if he hoped the business community would invest so that Northern Ireland would have to move forwards].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I profoundly hope so, yes. If you look at where so many of the hatreds and the concerns that have arisen they have arisen from people who don’t see a natural future for themselves, who are not fully occupied, who find themselves attracted one way or another to one or other side of the divide. Now I think we want to extinguish that and I think the growth of investment, the greater prosperity is perhaps the most single important item in doing that. Once people can see that they have a natural interest in the peace process than I believe that the peace process will become entrenched and will become irreversible and an important part of that is the sort of investment we are seeing today. It was for that reason that I convened this particular conference. There is more than one plank of course we have to reach a political agreement and that we’re seeking to do. But we also have to offer economic hope as well and that is what this conference is about.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if the business community would set the pace that the politicians might then follow].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am delighted to see the business community set the pace. They have been doing so for some time. Investment has been coming in even prior to the ceasefire. It is accelerating now. I was able to announce five important investments this morning. I hope as a result of the conference we have had that there will be many more. They may not appear over the next day or so, people will need to consider, examine, consult and then decide whether to invest. But I am confident that it will lead to more investment and providing that is the case than I think it will make a material contribution to entrenching the opportunities which exist here at the moment.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in Belfast (II) – 14 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview held after leaving the BT offices in Laganside, Belfast, on 14th December 1994.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The prospects are very promising indeed. I don’t expect people to commit themselves to huge investment while here today or tomorrow, but I think the atmosphere last night, the evidence of interest this morning, the sheer quality of the people who are here will lead to investment. I’m pretty confident we’ll get some.

    QUESTION:

    How disappointed are you in Sinn Fein’s attitude to the conference?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well, I think it’s a shame because the purpose of the conference is to try and provide jobs for all the people in Northern Ireland, including those that Sinn Fein would say they represent. So I think it is very short-sighted of them.

    QUESTION:

    Do you think it has spoiled the conference in any way?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No. Anyone who has been at the conference will know that it won’t. The atmosphere there is crackling. I have no doubt the conference is a success.

    QUESTION:

    Are you confident that the ceasefire will hold and Northern Ireland has a bright future ahead?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well I profoundly hope the ceasefire will hold and providing it does, providing they can carry the political process forward, and I’m very committed to that, then I think the prospects for Northern Ireland are very bright indeed. A Northern Ireland without violence hanging over it, as it has for the last 25 years, has everything that people would wish to see in terms of investment prospects. So, yes, I’m confident about its future.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in Belfast (I) – 14 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview held before entering the BT offices in Laganside, Belfast, on 14th December 1994.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Northern Ireland has had potential for a long time, that people have begun to realise, I think, basically over the last two years or so. Now they see the prospect of a lasting peace, of course that potential is immensely increased and the feedback we’ve had thus far has been extremely good. I could have asked for no more.

    QUESTION:

    There were some absentees this morning – Sinn Fein. What do you make of that?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well, I’m sorry that they did that. I think it was unnecessary but that’s the decision they must make. No doubt they’ll just make a small protest. But the reality is that what we’re here for is to provide jobs for the people Sinn Fein represent, that the Ulster Unionists represent, the DUP represent, that the Alliance Party represent. It’s the people of Northern Ireland that I’m here for this morning to try and provide more investment, more jobs, more hope, more prosperity and a better future for them, and I would hope that all political parties would support that.

  • Mr Major’s Press Conference in Belfast – 14 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s press conference in Belfast on 14th December 1994.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is almost a year to the day, not precisely, but almost a year to the day that Albert Reynolds and I signed the Downing Street declaration. Let me share some thoughts with you on what has happened over that year and on this anniversary.

    The International Investment Forum today and the five new investments that I was able to announce this morning are a striking vote of confidence in Northern Ireland’s future, they also I think reflect the extent to which people are now beginning to believe that the peace process may be carried satisfactorily through to its conclusion. In the last 12 months we have travelled further down the road to peace than many people imagined we could, and frankly further than I had imagined we would get in this short timescale on that day in Downing Street.

    Many of the worldly wise said to Albert Reynolds and I at that time that the burden of history was too great, that age-old animosities were still too fresh. Too many of my predecessors, they said, had come to grief on the Irish question and I would be foolish to court the same faith. But it was always repugnant to me that year in year, year out, whatever happened, terrorism seemed t continue remorselessly in Northern Ireland, victims accumulated year after year after year, civilians, army, RUC. We would not have tolerated that in Surrey, in Somerset, in Sussex, and it seemed to me to be no more tolerable in Ulster either. I believe that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had no choice but to put it at the top of the agenda to make sure whether or not we could reach a peace settlement. It was, and it will remain, amongst my highest priorities in Downing Street.

    Every time I have come to Ulster the people of Ulster have reinforced me in that conviction. The first time I came here as Prime Minister was January 1991 and I was very struck on that occasion by your most universal yearning for peace amongst the people I met – Protestants, Catholics – it made no difference to the fact that they wished to see a final peace settlement, they were prepared to give their support to a peace settlement providing it was based on transparency, on fairness and on democracy.

    Those views, the views that every single time I have come back to Northern Ireland I have found reinforced again, have been and are going to remain the guiding light of our policy on Northern Ireland. Nothing is going to be achieved, let us not fool ourselves, if it flies in the face of opinion in Ulster, it simply will not stick, at every stage we must be able take with us the Protestant and the Catholic mainstream opinions if we are to carry this through satisfactorily.

    And it is for that reason, amongst others, that I have made a particular point of regularly visiting Ulster, this is my 5th visit in the last 12 months, and of taking the opportunity when I come of listening to as wide a spectrum of opinion as possible, not just the great and good in Ulster opinion, but shoppers, businessmen, churchmen, policemen, local councillors, members of Parliament, soldiers, all the people who legitimately have their own view on what they wish to see in their own homes and in their own communities. And the message I have received time and time again across the communities has been unaltering – stick with the peace process, do not be put off by any set-backs, we are behind you in the peace process provided you play fair and open with us. Well I have played fair and open with the people of Northern Ireland and I intend to go on playing fair and open with the people of Northern Ireland.

    In October, in Belfast, I set out a comprehensive plan for taking forward the peace process. Many of the things I foreshadowed on that occasion have now become a reality. Last week the European Union pledged over 200 million pounds worth of assistance; the International and Investment Forum meeting last evening and today has been I think a huge success and that will become increasingly apparent, it levers the way open to further large-scale investment of the kind I announced this morning; President Clinton will hold a follow-up conference next spring and the Secretary of State will take with him a very powerful delegation from Northern Ireland; we have set in train exploratory talks with Sinn Fein and with the political representatives of the Loyalist paramilitaries, talks with the Loyalists open tomorrow and the second round of talks with Sinn Fein will take place on Monday of next week; as soon as we have a new government in Dublin, and that seems imminent, we will resume work to finalise the joint framework document as soon as we can; and then as I promised in Belfast in October, we will Publish both the framework document and the British government’s plans for the way forward within Northern Ireland, including proposals for an assembly. And then at the end of it all we will, again as I promised in Belfast, put the outcome of the negotiations between the main political parties to a referendum of the people in Northern Ireland.

    Fairness and openness are therefore the watchwords, they apply as much to Sinn Fein as to anybody else. There has been a great deal of talk over the months about parity of esteem and I think need to be quite clear about this. We have made absolutely plain to Sinn Fein from the outset that if the current exploratory phase of dialogue is successful then the door will open to them, open to them both to join the talks process with the other constitutional parties and to play generally a role in public life on the same footing as those other parties.

    But that door to normal political life cannot be opened until the current exploratory phase is brought to a satisfactory conclusion, including the question of decommissioning arms and explosives. Years of terrorist violence cannot suddenly speedily be swept under the carpet as though it had never happened, and that is true whether we are talking about violence by the IRA or violence by the Loyalist Paramilitaries.

    The Downing Street declaration has proved itself in 1994 to be a clear and a reliable route for the peace process. In 1995 the challenges to the process will I am sure remain formidable, but the declaration will show the way next year, just as it has done in the present year. I believe it removes the last shred of justification, if indeed any shred of justification ever existed, for using violence for political ends, it shows the two main communities, it shows Northern Ireland and the Republic, it shows London and it shows Dublin, that the burden of history can be overcome if the will to overcome it is there and if the patience to carry through the right sort of discussions and negotiations is there as well. And that is why the Downing Street declaration is of lasting value, that is why against the odds I believe today, perhaps more today than on any day in the last quarter of a century, it is perfectly possible for the people of Ulster to look around them and hope that the peace they see around them today may be a peace that will last and endure for good. That is the prize that is at stake, that is what the people of Ulster would wish to see us achieve, that is what anyone who stands in the way of that prize, they will have to explain to the people of Ulster why they have wrecked the prospects of a better life in the future than anyone has known in the past 25 years. Much progress has been made, more is to be done, but we will pursue the process with every hope of success.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Mark Simpson, Belfast Telegraph):

    This is your third visit since the IRA announced the ceasefire on August 31st, what exactly will it take from Sinn Fein for you to meet Gerry Adams on your next visit to Northern Ireland?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well we have to get through the exploratory talks. I would like to see Sinn Fein get through the exploratory talks, that means dealing with very tricky questions like weapons, semtex, explosives, detonators, I want to see them get through the exploratory talks and into talks with the main political parties and establish themselves as a proper democratic political party, then things change, but they have to get through those talks.

    QUESTION (David Davenport, RTE):

    Your statement in the Commons yesterday about the nature of a devolved assembly has caused some concern in Dublin, the view being that the limited nature of the assembly corresponds very closely to Mr. Molyneaux’s view of the way forward in Northern Ireland. Would you care to comment on that?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No, I wouldn’t. We will publish what we have in mind for the internal assembly in Northern Ireland when we publish the framework document but I am not going to anticipate that in advance; we will publish that on that occasion. What I said in the House of Commons yesterday was no different to what I have said on a number of occasions in the past.

    QUESTION (Philip Johnston, Daily Telegraph):

    You say, Prime Minister, we have to deal with these tricky questions about weapons in the exploratory dialogue. Is it an absolute condition of entering the substantive political talks that the paramilitaries decommission all of their weapons and who would verify that?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    The latter part of the question is one of the things that needs to be discussed in the preliminary talks. We have got to make huge progress on that and it has got to be clear that there is huge progress and people must recognise it as the case and that isn’t just a semantic point. If that progress isn’t made, then not only would the mainstream political parties in Northern Ireland not sit down with Sinn Fein or indeed the Loyalist paramilitaries but neither would the British Government. You cannot sit down to talk about political matters with parties that retain the right to return to violence and retain large stocks of weapons in order to inflict violence upon other people. That isn’t the way to conduct democratic negotiations.

    Sinn Fein say to us that they wish to become a democratic party. I think that is a very welcome message indeed, I very much wish to see them become a democratic party but if that is so, they will not need large stocks of weapons that they may then revert to if one democratic decision or another goes against them. So it isn’t a semantic point, it is a very significant and central point as to whether either the mainstream political parties in Northern Ireland or the British Government could sit down to proper political talks with Sinn Fein.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, you say that Sinn Fein won’t need to retain large stocks of weapons. Are you in a position to go one stage further and say absolutely clearly that for them to go on to the next stage of acceptance as a political party they will need to actually hand over the vast majority of their arms stocks

    PRIME MINISTER:

    “Hand-over” is never an expression I have used. What is really of concern to me and I think of concern to all the people out there in Northern Ireland, is that those weapons are no longer available for use in terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland.

    I have to say to you I am not pedantic about whether those weapons are surrendered or whether those weapons are decommissioned and destroyed with some form of verification. I don’t mind if they are decommissioned and destroyed but one would need to verify that that was the case. That is the significant point – that they are no longer available for use and a political party would not go back to a nice, neat little stockpile of weapons if something went against them and start using them again.

    QUESTION (Irish Times):

    Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annersley recently told journalists that he reckoned the current peace process had a 60/40 chance of surviving to Easter and if it thereafter survived a review by the general IRA organisation its chances would improve considerably. Would you agree with that estimation or do you have a different analysis?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think every day is a small victory for Northern Ireland, every day makes it a little less likely that violence will return. I can’t make a direct judgement as to what the proportions are but I do believe that the longer the ceasefire holds, the more there would be such public repugnance if anyone returned to violence not necessarily Sinn Fein and the IRA but also the Loyalist paramilitaries – that the longer peace becomes entrenched, the longer the ceasefire becomes entrenched in Northern Ireland the less likelihood there is that it will return. I think Sir Hugh Annersley would make a better judgement than I would as to what might happen on the ground here but I do believe the general premise underlying his comments must be right.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, two questions in the absence of an opportunity to put them to you earlier:

    Could I just ask you are you presupposing, Sir, that the people sitting at the table with your officials at Stormont are empowered or have control over the weapons to decommission them or otherwise? In other words, are you saying that the people sitting there are the people who can destroy, render, surrender those weapons?

    My second question is: against the backdrop of your remarks yesterday about a potential upper tier of local government or some body or assembly which has control over local government, does that amount to the perception here that you are in Jim Molyneaux’s pocket let us say?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think probably the decision not to let you ask silly questions like that before might have been very wise but you certainly had the opportunity to put them now!

    I suggest you wait until you see what our proposals are. I am not going to unveil our proposals in Strand 1 until we are ready to unveil the proposals in Strand 2 and Strand 3 and for a very good reason: when those proposals are unveiled, I want people to see what the whole package looks like, not what just little bits look want the people across Northern Ireland to see openly and fairly what the whole collection of decisions might look like if they were subsequently verified by the political parties and most important of all, subsequently verified in a referendum by the people of Northern Ireland and that is the point. Nothing is going to happen unless this has the general agreement of people across Northern Ireland.

    What we are doing is bringing forward ideas; we are not imposing things upon people in Northern Ireland; we are seeking to bring forward ideas in the hope and belief that they will wish to consent to them and consent in Northern Ireland is going to be critical. We have learned that from history and I think it is right in practice as well that we should proceed on that basis.

    As far as your first question is concerned, everybody has known prior to these talks beginning that we would need to deal with the question of weapons and I think those at the talks understand that and will endeavour to do so.

  • Mr Major’s Comments about Northern Ireland – 14 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on Northern Ireland during an interview held in Belfast on 14th December 1994.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I care about peace in Northern Ireland. If what had happened in Northern Ireland over the last quarter of a century had happened in Surrey, or Sussex or Suffolk or anywhere else, people would have demanded action. Well I feel just as strongly about it in Northern Ireland as I would if it were anywhere else, it is right on its merits to take this action. Many people said you will not make any progress at all. Well I think they are now looking rather silly. A great deal of progress has been made, we have not vet cracked the problem, we are not there yet and I do not claim that, but I do claim that we have made more progress than most people believed possible, that the atmosphere has wholly changed, that the prospects for achieving a firm settlement for good are there today in a way they have not been in the last quarter of a century and we need to pursue the political process and we need to pursue the economic progress. Never under-estimate the impact of inward investment and domestic investment, creating jobs, creating a future for the young men and women who before just drifted to one side of the argument or the other and was the raw material on which the terrorists operate. Let us have some more economic prosperity and cut that away from them, and that is what today is about.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Belfast – 13 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech in Belfast, held on Tuesday 13th December 1994.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    My Lord Mayor, My Lord Mayor of London, Mr Secretary, Mr Governor, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.

    Can I firstly extend to you all the very warmest of welcomes but extend that welcome especially to those who have travelled very long distances indeed to be here on this occasion – to Secretary Brown and his very large and very welcome delegation from the United States; to Mr Cherin [phon] who has done such outstanding work in leading the European Commission’s Task Force; to Mr Bonner, representing the Irish government; to the Lord Mayor and many leading figures from British industry and finance; and to all the representatives of seven governments and 181 companies who are gathered here this evening for this particular occasion.

    I will have the opportunity tomorrow to speak about Northern Ireland’s economy at the forum, but I would like for a few moments this evening to sketch out a little of the background, including its international aspects.

    Though I daresay that perhaps a small number of you will be visiting Northern Ireland for the first time, many of you will have been here before, some of you will know Northern Ireland extremely well indeed, but I think whether you are old friends or new friends, you will experience on this visit an entirely different atmosphere right across Northern Ireland. You will I hope see a huge difference from the impressions formed in the past, from the impressions that so many people have had for so many years about what life was like here and what the prospects here were for the people who lived in Northern Ireland.

    We want on this occasion to show you the prospects in which you and your companies could play a part, to your advantage I hope, as well as for the benefit of Northern Ireland as a whole. I can promise you this from my frequent visits to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland will welcome you with open arms, it will support you and it will do a fine job for you. And I do not frankly think you need take this just from me, ask the many businessmen and other representatives of Northern Ireland at this dinner and at the forum tomorrow, ask other investors who have already taken a substantial stake in Northern Ireland’s future.

    Let me say just a few words about the long pathway to this particular evening. When I became Prime Minister in 1990 I had four objectives for Northern Ireland. Progress in this province would be one of the highest priorities for the government. I agreed from the outset that we would oppose terrorism with all democratic means and would show the tiny minority – for that is what it has always been, the tiny majority engaged in that terrorism – that it would lead nowhere for them, except perhaps to imprisonment. But that of its own was not sufficient, we also needed to show those who supported terrorism precisely what it was that they were missing out on by that support, we would demonstrate that all legitimate aspirations could be pursued peacefully and pursued through the democratic process, that those who had excluded themselves from the process could be admitted to it, provided they abandoned violence, that with or without them that democratic process would move ahead. That was, in substance, the essence of the Downing Street declaration that Albert Reynolds and I signed a year or so ago, and of the government’s political talks with all the constitutional parties.

    I also felt that the British and the Irish governments should try and work together as never before. If we, the British and the Irish government, could reconcile our own differences without compromising our principles we might set an example for both sides of the community in Northern Ireland. We did so with the Downing Street declaration and we hope soon to take a further step by concluding a framework document to help the talks process. That was the course I set. Some would say, some did say rather optimistically, but we have now travelled a long way down that road and I would like you to know that whatever the difficulties that lie ahead, the British government’s commitment to those objectives will remain as strong as it has been from the outset.

    The support of other governments, the support of other countries, will be very significant to us and to the people of Northern Ireland for two reasons in particular. First, terrorism did not just happen in a vacuum, historic grievances were paraded at home and overseas to justify it, in some places during the Cold War ideological connections were made, funds were raised from East, from West, from South, guns and the most deadly explosives were procured. It is crucially important that people around the world should now appreciate precisely what has changed and what has changed most dramatically in the last twelve months or so.

    The Northern Ireland of today, the Northern Ireland of tomorrow, the Northern Ireland that our guests will see on this visit is not the Northern Ireland of 25 or 50 years ago. Northern Ireland today has some of the most stringent measures for fair employment and community relations to be found anywhere in the world, there is a general recognition that a fair deal must be offered to all. But the future of this province depends on healing those rifts which in the past tore Northern Ireland asunder for all too many years.

    Sinn Fein and the political representatives of Loyalism have declared that they wish to enter the political arena as peaceful democratic parties. It is a declaration that people across the communities in Northern Ireland had longed for for more years than they care to remember. And so Sinn Fein and the political representatives of Loyalism are now beginning an historic dialogue with the government about how this should come about and how their weapons and explosives may be safely taken out of commission.

    The overwhelming majority of the people of Northern Ireland seek peace, and as you will see on this visit they are now enjoying peace. I do not myself believe that they would have any sympathy with any group who sought to disturb that peace again. I hope that equally strong pressure to make peace irreversible will come from outside Northern Ireland. People overseas who take an interest in its affairs, wherever their sympathies may lie should continue to speak up for peace, as so many have done to such good effect in the months immediately past.

    They should make clear that there will be no sympathy, and not a shred of justification or support, for any group were any group to return to the violent ways of the past. If I may say so to our guests this evening, by your very presence here tonight you are giving that signal and I am grateful to you. But more important perhaps, I believe all the people of Northern Ireland, on both sides of the community, will be equally grateful to you for that particular signal.

    Secondly this evening I would ask you to look at the economic prospects for Northern Ireland with open eyes. A quarter of a century of terrorism inevitably held back Northern Ireland’s development. Today, whether you are from Britain, the Irish Republic, from other parts of the European Union, from the United States or from the Far East, you can be in right at the beginning of a very remarkable and exciting new phase in Northern Ireland.

    As I shall explain in more detail tomorrow, you can reap the rewards of coming into that new phase very early indeed. I am not asking you to be anything less than hard headed about your business decisions, I would not expect this and I do not believe anyone in Northern Ireland would either. I would only ask you to recognise that here in Northern Ireland there is a society positively bursting with the desire to succeed, to put the past behind it and to exploit its undoubted potential. It is a society which as I think you can see from the many success stories that are apparent today, has achieved a huge amount despite the unprecedented difficulties it faced from the troubles that there have been over the last quarter of a century. Their endeavour to succeed, the endeavour to succeed of all the people of Northern Ireland, has the whole-hearted backing of the British government and of the European Union, and very strong and immensely welcome support from the governments of the United States and other countries.

    We intend to consolidate peace, to consolidate peace by showing what each and every person in Northern Ireland may gain from such a peace. Already, after just a few short weeks and months, the evidence is all around us: in this fine hotel, a hotel which has now shed the scars of past attacks; in other hotels now filling their rooms for the first time in many years; at the airports where extra services and new routes are beginning to appear; and in streets crowded with Christmas shoppers, many coming in record numbers from Dublin and elsewhere in the Republic.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, the government’s vision for Northern Ireland is very clear, very straightforward. There is no equivocation about it, nothing [indistinct] in any way, it is a vision in which both main communities will be able to feel comfortable and threatened by none, where both communities will feel that their aspirations and their identities are recognised and respected as legitimate, where both communities will recognise that they have more in common both by way of history and challenges than separates them, and where perhaps, above all, they have a fair and equitable stake in growing prosperity fairly distributed right across Northern Ireland.

    I am grateful to you this evening for leaving your homes and your offices to come here, at very short notice, for what I know is a very busy Christmas season. I strongly suspect that there is probably nowhere in the world where Christmas will be celebrated more joyously than it will here in Northern Ireland this Christmas. Nowhere will those traditional greetings that we have grown up with and know and love so much, nowhere will the traditional greetings of peace and goodwill have a deeper meaning than they will this year, this Christmas, in this part of Northern Ireland. It will mean for them a great deal.

    With your help this evening, the people who are here, I believe that at long last this season of peace can mark the beginnings of a peace for all seasons in Northern Ireland, for all seasons, for all people, for all time – that is the objective that we are seeking, it is an objective that we have in our grasp if we have the courage, the fortitude and the luck to carry through to conclusion the work that has begun over the past few years. I hope and I believe that we may be able to achieve it and if we are we will be able to look back from that happy time to this occasion this evening and you will be able to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your presence here this evening, and at this conference tomorrow, will have played an important part in securing that peace for Northern Ireland and that future for all its citizens.

    You are very welcome indeed, thank you for being here.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in Northern Ireland – 13 December 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s doorstep interview held outside the Europa Hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 13th December 1994.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t believe so. I think the peace process has done rather more than just start. Anyone who comes to Northern Ireland and sees what the atmosphere is today compared to just a few months ago simply wouldn’t recognise the place. The opportunity for investment here has always been good. Of course there is a whole range of obvious reasons for investing here. But as the peace process catches hold, the thing that is going to make sure that it absolutely lasts is increasing economic prosperity to remove many of the old grievances which existed. Providing investment is vital.

    QUESTION:

    It’s the chicken and the egg – which comes first – the investment or the peace?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Peace is coming and investment will entrench it.

    QUESTION:

    You said tonight that nothing will stop you in driving this peace process forward. You said that you would be steadfast. What does it mean in a sentence?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It means exactly what I said. When I first went into Downing Street I put Northern Ireland right at the top of the agenda. I sat down at my seat in Downing Street. I made a list of things I wanted to do. One of them was to end the bloodshed there’d been in Northern Ireland and lead to permanent peace. We have made a lot of progress. We’re not there yet but we’ve made further progress than most people believed we would make and I think there’s more to come.

    QUESTION:

    Is this the page of history that you want to turn?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t think it’s a question of turning it for the sake of history, I’d like to turn it for the sake of the people who live in Northern Ireland.