I believe the review will result in agreement on how to proceed. Last night, Seamus Mallon gave us a report on the review. I want to say that, in leading our team at the review, Seamus has done a quite tremendous job, backed up by the other members of our Assembly team. Nobody has done more to try to make the agreement work, in the most difficult circumstances, than Seamus.
As we have watched other parties manoeuvre for advantage, we in the SDLP have throughout been faithful to our longstanding indifference to narrow sectional or party interest. It's frustrating to watch an agreement we have worked so hard to create placed at risk. I know that our Assembly members, our activists and our supporters all feel impatient at the media and public attention devoted to others trying to resolve a dispute of their own making.
But, once the current impasse is resolved, we'll come into our own. Of all the parties, we are the one which has prepared longest and with most determination to take its place in the Northern Ireland, North/South and British/Irish institutions. We'll have four members in the executive, and our other Assembly members will play key roles in committees. We'll be working to make all of the institutions a success, because the success of one will only reinforce the success of the others.
It is through working together in the institutions, on the practical issues which should be the stuff of day-to-day politics - health, education, jobs, agriculture - that we will turn partnership from a slogan or an aspiration into a living reality. Over many years we've shown the way at local government level. Now, in a larger arena, there's so much more to be done.
Within Northern Ireland, there are issues which are crying out for a fresh approach, and which will benefit from being addressed by the directly-elected representatives of our people. I'll list only a few.
We need to put in place new policies to alleviate and resolve the crisis in agriculture. We need to reform our educational system so that the wonderful achievements of our top students are matched by those of the less able. We need to ensure that our healthcare system uses the most modern technologies while not losing touch with human values and its close connection with individual areas. In particular we need to find ways of tackling the long-term social and economic inequalities which still persist, despite worthwhile reforms.
Not only will there be practical benefits, but there will be, through working together, a real beginning to the healing process. As we build trust and respect and erode distrust.
The same is true of the North/South Ministerial Council and implementation bodies. There is a very great deal to be done on a cross-Border and all-island basis across all the sectors of our social and economic life - whether in the areas of energy, economic development, the environment, transport, health or education. For the first time ever, Ministers from North and South will be coming together, in a systematic and focused way, with the support of a standing Secretariat, to agree common policies and take common actions. But this must be done by agreement and for mutual benefit.
The SDLP also supports the new British/Irish structures and will play a full and enthusiastic part in making them work.
If we as public representatives and political leaders can work together in a true spirit of partnership we will, I am convinced, gradually transform the environment across Northern Ireland and in our island.
There are fine words in the Good Friday agreement about tolerance, mutual respect and reconciliation. We must strive to ensure they become the touchstones by which we live. There are still too many places which are disfigured and divided by raw sectarianism. SDLP members are been at the forefront in fighting sectarianism, often at personal risk. I think here of our colleague Danny O'Connor, for example.
We need to find, through dialogue and mutual respect for the rights of all, ways to resolve the continuing dispute over parades, particularly that at Drumcree, which has had the most severe and enduring consequences for the residents of the Garvaghy Road and which has also blighted the life not just of Portadown but of the North as a whole. In general, the example set in Derry by the Apprentice Boys and the residents is one to be commended.
We want to create a society where the civil rights of all sections of our people are respected and where it is recognised that to every right there corresponds a duty to exercise the right responsibly.
The agreement must be implemented in full, and the new Equality and Human Rights Commissions must have the resources and the support needed for them to do their work properly.
It is also clearly vital, as Seamus Mallon said last night and as Conference agreed, that the Patten Report on Policing be implemented in its entirety, so the agreement's concept of a police service belonging to all of the people, representing all of the people, and serving all of the people, be realised.
This party has always been forward-looking and outward-looking. This has been one of our great strengths. Our ability to concentrate on shaping the future is now more important than ever.
You just have to look at the changes going on in Europe and in the wider international arena to see how important it is that we in this region play our part in determining the future.
Economic and monetary union has been one of the great achievements of the European Union in recent years. The vast majority of our fellow EU citizens are now part of a single currency zone. We in this corner of Europe are in the unfortunate position of being, temporarily it is to be hoped, excluded from this zone. We all know the disruptive effects of the division of this island into two currency areas.
We also have to be honest about the political implications of economic and monetary union. We cannot pretend that it is simply a technical question of economic management. EMU gives a big impetus towards closer political integration in Europe. It is going to affect a wide range of economic and social policies. There will be increased pressure to work towards common standards for all our citizens in whatever part of EU territory they live. It would be a mistake not to face up to this reality. We should emphasise the positive benefits of closer integration. We in Northern Ireland must be involved in shaping the future of the European Union. We must ensure that our region's interests are represented at every level in the decision-making process. We must co-operate with others to make sure that the process of change works to our advantage, not to our detriment.
We are all aware of the crisis occurring in our biggest industry - agriculture. This is a classic case of the limitations imposed by the lack of political structures. We are constrained by an agricultural policy determined by the completely different conditions in Britain.
We have no regional representation in the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers.
That is the situation we have to change. We need a regionally realistic agricultural policy within the framework of the CAP, and a CAP that we can play a part in shaping. We need a political direction for agriculture within Northern Ireland, and cross-Border institutions to ensure equal treatment for all farmers on this island.
Now is not a time to rest on our laurels. The new year and the new century will bring fresh and crucial challenges as we seek to demonstrate that our dream of a new, agreed Ireland, based on partnership and on peace, is no illusion. We in the SDLP have a unique and irreplaceable contribution to make. Let us all, together, continue to work tirelessly to reach our goal.
We have the future in our hands and our approach to that future will undoubtedly be strengthened by the great number of talented and committed young people who have been steadily joining the party.
We look forward to their role not only in strengthening the party but also in joining with all of us to shape our future, to lay the foundations for the new beginning in the new century.
The full text of Mr Hume's speech is available at The Irish Times Website: www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/1999/hume