Dia daoibh go léir. I was pleased to hear Peter Robinson bring up the subject of the trip to South Africa that I went on several years ago. There was a technical debate on cross-community support and sufficient consensus. However, Peter Robinson conveniently ignored the fact that the South African peace process was successful because it was an inclusive process and because there were people of courage in South Africa who wanted to end the hatred and division of the past. We are on that journey. The Middle East is also on that journey. South Africa is ahead of us, and we are ahead of the Middle East. We intend to continue to move forward.

I am very pleased to give my vote and my party's vote to David Trimble and Mark Durkan as First Minister and Deputy First Ministers. We owe a debt of gratitude to the former Deputy First Minister, Séamus Mallon. He was a highly esteemed and respected Deputy First Minister, who made a wonderful contribution to the peace process. We thank him very much for that.

For the past decade we have been on a journey which has presented genuine difficulties for all sides. However, the process is about building a new future for all of us and for our children. The process ensures that the past does not become the future. That presents a challenge for everyone - Republicans, Nationalists, Unionists and Loyalists. This is an inclusive process, and everyone shares responsibilities, decision-making and accountability. The politics of exclusion belong in the past. We can make this work by building and bedding down the institutions. We must fulfil the mandate given to us by our electorate - the overwhelming majority of the electorate. No one said that this would be easy.

Last week, the IRA, in a historic and groundbreaking move, liberated the peace process. [Interruption].

Order.

The move was not made without causing great difficulties for Irish Republicans. Republicans will have great difficulty dealing with this, but political leaders have a collective responsibility to grasp the opportunity that we were given last week and use it to best effect for the collective good of society. These institutions are not the preserve of one party or, indeed, of all the parties. These are the people's institutions. We have a contract with the electorate to work for the people and deliver what all the people want. We have a mandate to resolve a long-standing conflict. We have accomplished much, and we have much more to accomplish. We have made progress despite the odds. The institutions are working; they are popular and successful. They also allow us to work collectively.

I am pleased that, although the process has been difficult from the beginning, we are seeing the pro-agreement parties come together. The Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP, Sinn Féin, the Women's Coalition, the Alliance Party and the PUP are coming together. The people who are outnumbered are those who live in the past - the tiny number of Assembly Members who live in the past. No matter what happens today, we will continue to make progress. I was disappointed that Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage were not prepared to talk with me so that I could attempt to allay their fears. However, that is a matter for them. [Interruption].

Order.

They can answer to history and our children. My last words will be a short verse of a poem -

Sit down.

Order. It is for the Speaker to decide when Members stand up and sit down, but the Member has come to the end of his time.

On behalf of my Colleagues, I support the proposal for the nomination of Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan, just as we did three years ago when it was proposed that Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon take the offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

First, I thank Séamus Mallon for all that he has done during his time as Deputy First Minister. That is certainly not to say that the Alliance Party agrees with everything that he has done - we have had several exchanges with him in the Chamber. However, he held an important office, which he took on at a difficult time, and he contributed to the best of his ability. It is appropriate that that should be recognised in the Chamber today.

I would also like to thank Reg Empey - whom I trust is nearing the end of his short-term apprenticeship - for what he has done in recent weeks in conjunction with Séamus Mallon.

There was a democratic mandate in the votes that returned all of us to the Assembly on the ticket of an Ulster Unionist and an SDLP member taking on these roles. It is tragic that although over 70% of us will vote for that ticket today, the arcane rules will deny an election. If the vote of 70% of the Chamber is not carried because of one or two votes within Unionism, I have no doubt that some people will put the blame on the Alliance Party. In July 1998 the Alliance Party cast five votes within its "Centre" designation for an Ulster Unionist/ SDLP ticket. We will do exactly the same today. Let us be quite clear about where the blame and the fault lie. It does not lie with those of us who have been consistent, have supported the institutions and have sought to make the Assembly work. The blame will lie with those who were elected as Ulster Unionists but who failed to support their leader. The fault will lie with a voting system that prevents such a majority from carrying the vote.

We do not need a short-term fix. However, we must look urgently at the rules to ensure that the will of the people, as carried out by their mandated, elected representatives, can be effective regardless of the way in which the current difficulties have arisen. If the vote does not pass today, it is not the end of the road, because a great deal has been achieved and much progress has been made, even recently. Regardless of the criticisms of individual decisions, there is a popular will that the Assembly should succeed and that the institutions should function. I might criticise the Executive's achievements so far - and I trust that I will have the opportunity to continue to criticise them in a constructive way - but there is no doubt that what the Executive have achieved to date is better than achievements under direct rule and previous Administrations. We are not trying to protect David Trimble. Whether he wants our protection is another matter. We want to use our votes and influence to protect the agreement, to secure the institutions and to ensure that progress continues to be made. That is the scenario that all of us will face when the vote is taken. However, a better alternative would be for those who were elected as Ulster Unionists to cast their vote for an Ulster Unionist leader and to ensure that the motion is passed by a majority and that it is also in accordance with the arcane rules that we are forced to abide by.

The truly momentous decision that will be made today will influence the future of Northern Ireland. That decision will be made against the dark backdrop not only of what happened in America on 11 September but of the events in Northern Ireland throughout 30 years of terrorism. There are two simple reasons that that parallel is not inappropriate. There is no distinction between the evil intent that drove the planes into the twin towers and that behind what has happened in Northern Ireland. The evil intent that firebombed the twin towers is precisely the same evil intent that placed firebombs in the La Mon House Hotel.

The terrorism that took place in Northern Ireland had no legitimacy, and I say that regardless of the attempts that are being made to distinguish the so-called freedom fighters of the Republican movement from those who killed so many people in the United States on 11 September. That is another reason that there is nothing inappropriate in running those two things together as the dark backdrop against which we make this decision. What happened in Northern Ireland was devoid of legitimacy, for the simple reason that no citizens in Northern Ireland were ever denied their freedom. A child could demolish the logic of the arguments that have been put forward in an attempt to legitimise their pursuit of terrorism.

If the Assembly decides in favour of the appointment of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, we will do more than blur the distinction between terrorism and democracy: we will legitimise and elevate terrorism and debase and corrupt democracy. We will lay the foundation for a criminalisation of our society, already a major problem. That will be detrimental to the future of our society. First, the representatives of terrorism have been placed in Government. Secondly, terrorist prisoners were released because they were affiliated to an organisation on ceasefire - a ceasefire that could not be broken even by multiple murder or any other form of criminality. Now there is to be an amnesty for those who have so far escaped the courts. Furthermore, we have had the destruction of the police force that stood between the law-abiding citizen and the terrorist. That is the elevation and legitimisation of terrorism, the crowning act of which took place recently, involving Mr de Chastelain. What happened was not the decommissioning of a murderous arsenal in such a way as to represent a renunciation of violence, it was a recognition by two sovereign Governments - [Interruption].

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Are we discussing the re-election of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, or are we denigrating Gen de Chastelain? What is the purpose of the debate?

Please continue, Mr Roche.

There was no authentic renunciation of violence or anything that could remotely be construed as such. It was a recognition by two sovereign Governments of the right of an illegal and criminal organisation to hold onto its arms and, if needs be, to dispose of them at its will. In other words, it was a legitimisation of the holding of a terrorist arsenal.

If the motion is successful, we will have the elevation of terrorism and the debasement of democracy. It is not only those who are committed to Unionism who must resist that anyone who represents the decency that still exists in Northern Ireland must vote to prevent it.

I express my support for Mr Mallon, who has been through difficult times in the Assembly. He once said that at times we turned the colour of his face to almost the colour of his hair with our patching up and breaking down. Through it all, he remained calm and encouraging.

I am delighted to support the nomination of Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan. We should remind ourselves of how far we have come not just in the past few weeks, but in the past few years. In the Chamber, we often forget that. On 10 April 1998, we declared our intention to do something different for Northern Ireland.

On 22 May those best intentions were endorsed by the majority of the people, despite misgivings on policing, power sharing, a partitionist Assembly and prisoners.

Does the Member agree that it has been implied that every prisoner who has been released from jail has become involved in activities that could bring down the whole process? The Member agreed that the Tory Government released 254 Republican and Loyalist life-sentence prisoners without any deals on 15 December 1994 - the day on which exploratory talks started.

No murderers were released then.

Mr McCartney has just made a statement. Every one of those 254, including myself, had served indeterminate sentences, which means that they were life sentences.

There were many milestones during the process that led up to the talks, including the release and return of prisoners between Christmas and the new year. It was difficult, but we should remember that it was difficult for the victims too. If we do return the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, we should remember the sacrifice and hurt that they have experienced. In the acrimony of parliamentary debates their suffering is sometimes forgotten.

Nonetheless, we did bring a dynamic of creativity to the process, and during the past few weeks that dynamic has been restored. There have been some important events, and they have been as good as Good Friday. Peace building all over the world depends on the introduction of dynamics at the least expected moment, and given those events, we should be ashamed of ourselves if we do not bring Northern Ireland out of the limbo that it has been in since 1 July 2001.

I express my gratitude to Sir Reg Empey for filling the position since 1 July, but Northern Ireland needs a First Minister and a Deputy First Minister. There will be acrimony if we do not elect them today, and we have seen enough of that in the past. It is time to return consensus government to Northern Ireland. It has worked; it will work; and it must work.

It is time also to pledge our intention to work with the coalition Government. It is unique and unprecedented, but so is Northern Ireland. People concentrate on bad behaviour, on poor and disastrous events of the past, on the wrong behaviour that we witness too often in our streets, villages and communities. Only the leadership of the Assembly can create the necessary framework to change that. We have done our best today, and we expect other parties to play their parts as well.

I am glad that we have this opportunity to support the nomination of Mr Trimble, and I welcome the nomination of Mark Durkan as Deputy First Minister. I am sure that he too will bring a wonderful voice of leadership to the community, because he is known to speak with the voice of consensus. I support the nominations.

No one in the Assembly doubts that I oppose the re-election of David Trimble. I have listened to the usual cant and hypocrisy about the good works that have been done. I have listened to Reg Empey talk about the difference between the publicity given to the events in south Armagh and the secrecy that surrounds the alleged act of decommissioning last week. We should also remember the speech that the Republic's Foreign Minister, Mr Cowen, gave in New York on Tuesday.

He said that the British Government must move speedily to remove the hardware of war from south Armagh and from west Tyrone to show people that politics worked. As far as I am aware, no listening device or observation post has ever brought about the death of anyone, but Kalashnikovs, surface-to-air missiles and Semtex have.

That shows the hypocrisy not only of those comparisons but of Reg Empey's attempt to persuade the Assembly and the people of Northern Ireland that what happened last week amounted to an act of decommissioning that they could accept. That party would accept anything - literally anything - to stay in office, to have their cars and emoluments, to posture that they are doing something under devolved government that has not been done before. What is the state of the Health Service? What is the state of the economy of Northern Ireland? What is the state of transport? All of them are worse now than they were before.

Séamus Mallon - that avowed democrat - should know all about the procedures of democracy that were distorted and disfigured by his mock resignation and that have been further defiled by what has happened here today concerning re-designation. Mr Martin McGuinness prattled on about decommissioning. Mr McGuinness, Mr Adams and Mr Pat Doherty undoubtedly consulted their fellow members of the IRA Army Council, Mr Keenan, Mr Ferris, "Slab" Murphy and others, to decide what they should do. They represented to the world that they were distant from the people to whom they were talking.

Monica McWilliams prattled on about consensus. She said that we must have consensus - as she and her Colleague Jane Morrice were attempting to undermine, as Peter Robinson so graphically pointed out, the very fundamentals of consensus and cross-community approval that were the alleged linchpins of the agreement. Martin McGuinness said that there was no pressure to exclude parties. I have never exerted pressure to exclude democratic parties from the Assembly. But I am opposed to members of the IRA Army Council being in charge of the education of our children. I am opposed to including terrorists in Government. [Interruption].

What about the terrorists beside you?

Order.

As for this mock suggestion that some act of decommissioning has taken place, no one believes that. The arch-appeaser, Mr Trimble, has entered the Chamber. Mr Trimble told us that 22 May 2000 was the magical date for decommissioning; it never happened. Mr Trimble offered to resign if decommissioning did not happen by January 2000; it did not happen. Mr Trimble was conned in May 2000 by a target date for decommissioning of June 2001; it never happened. Mr Trimble, Sir Reg Empey and their party have been conned into believing that decommissioning will occur as a result of the events of last week. Even Gen de Chastelain confirmed that this was a one-off event; there was no suggestion of any continuum. We have reached the stage where the gombeens of Ulster Unionism will literally accept anything as long as they can stay in their jobs, get their money and get on with it.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I ask you to make a ruling on remarks made by Mr John Kelly during Mr McCartney's speech, when he said, "What about the terrorists beside you?" I am not aware that either Cedric Wilson or Mr Dodds has ever been convicted of a terrorist offence, and I ask you to rule on that matter.

It is impossible for the Speaker to rule on remarks that have been made from a sedentary position. I cannot hear them, therefore I cannot rule on them. The Member has made some remarks about what he heard. He may well have heard them, but it is not possible to hear them from the Chair because, as Members know, remarks made from a sedentary position are not picked up by the microphones.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I was put out of the House for making a remark from a sedentary position - a remark that you admitted then that you had not heard. Why, therefore, can you not make a ruling on this point?

Order. The Member will resume his seat. He knows well that if he questions the Chair he is in defiance of it and that he may end up leaving again. I suggest that it may not be in his best interests to press the matter at this juncture.

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Will you study Hansard and rule further on the matter?

Mr Poots does not appear to have been listening to what I said. A remark made from a sedentary position is generally made too far from the microphones to be picked up by Hansard. I shall be reading Hansard with considerable interest tomorrow with regard to several matters - the next five minutes will, I suspect, determine how much interest.

Dr Paisley, a point of order.

On a point of order. No Speaker is entitled to leave the Chair nor should the Chair be unmanned at any proceedings of the Assembly.

Order. The Member will resume his seat.

I was called for a point of order.

The Member will resume his seat. I seek to be a proper servant of the Assembly, and many Members, including the Member who was on his feet, frequently ask to have my ear in order to ask a question of procedure.

No Members having been elected, the procedure may be repeated after a period specified by the Speaker. I may wish to consult with Members in that regard. Of course, there are other matters regarding the standing of the Assembly that will be decided outside the Chamber without the involvement of those who sit in the Chamber.

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