Ahern to give address on Good Friday Agreement

Outgoing Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will tomorrow address an Oireachtas Committee on the Good Friday Agreement to mark the historic accord’s 10th anniversary.

It will be the final time he appears before a parliamentary committee in Leinster House before standing down on May 7.

The Committee, set up to help implement the Agreement, allows Westminster MPs from the North to take part in the workings of the Oireachtas for the first time.

The SDLP’s South Belfast MP Alastair McDonnell, South Down MP Eddie McGrady, Sinn Féin’s Fermanagh/south Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty, MP for West Tyrone all attended the first meeting last November.

They can take part in debates on the April 1998 peace pact signed by Mr Ahern and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair but do not have a right to vote or to move motions and amendments.

Mr Ahern’s address forms part of a series of events to mark the 10th anniversary of the Agreement’s signing.

On Friday the Taoiseach, Mr Blair and former US Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the all-party negotiations which led to the peace deal, gathered in Dublin for a gala charity dinner.

Mr Blair was being honoured for his role in the Agreement.