After a fortnight's break over the Christmas holiday period, negotiations will resume next week to try to resolve the difficulties which are still impeding the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement. The Taoiseach has arranged to have another telephone conversation with the British Prime Minister from Malta or Cyprus early in the week, a follow-up to their last positive discussions on the Saturday before Christmas Day; Irish officials will travel to London to meet their British counterparts, probably on Tuesday; and, equally important, Anglo-Irish officials will begin a new round of talks with all of the pro-agreement parties in the North, including the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein.
Another concerted bid is about to get under way to address in a comprehensive and final manner the "implementation controversies" which could scupper the whole agreement within a matter of weeks. The pro-agreement parties and their leaders are acutely conscious that there is no official deadline to their deliberations; just the reality of time marching on towards the next Ulster Unionist Council meeting which could pose a new challenge to Mr David Trimble's leadership later this month and the departure of President Bill Clinton from office in the United States.
The basis for an agreement to surmount the current obstacles was placed on the table by President Clinton on his final visit to Ireland before Christmas. There has been no material breakthrough in the intervening three weeks. The priorities, as he outlined them, remain: putting arms fully and finally beyond use; getting the nationalists to sign up to the new police service; and demilitarisation. Some progress, if only clarity of definition, has been made on these issues since the visit. The British Prime Minister is showing a willingness to dismantle the considerable military installations in Crossmaglen. The challenge to him now is to change the mindset of his security chiefs. The Taoiseach has offered to restore a large Army presence to the Border to assist Mr Blair in this task. In return for such a major gesture on demilitarisation, the Government is confident that it can secure significant movement on decommissioning. The Independent International Decommissioning Body's Christmas call for a crucial face-to-face meeting with the IRA met with what was considered to be a fairly positive response. In its New Year statement, the IRA said that its leadership "is committed to a resolution of the issue of arms. This will not be resolved until the British Prime Minister takes political responsibility for it".
The most difficult of the three implementation controversies, in the Government's view, is the requirement that nationalists sign up to the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. The Government fears that the British suggestion to de-couple the implementation of the Patten reforms from the demilitarisation/decommissioning package could be rejected by the SDLP and Sinn Fein in the run-up to the British general election in May.
The earnest hope is that the New Year will herald a new beginning in Northern Ireland as the leaders strive for a comprehensive package to resolve all of the outstanding difficulties. Time moves on. Mr Ken Maginnis has announced that he will retire at the next election. He is one of the best-known Unionist politicians in this State. He travelled to Dublin in the years of barren cross-community relationships - before and after the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 - to open up a dialogue with nationalists in public and in private. It is to the credit of people like Mr Maginnis that the Unionist position is so well understood and respected in the Belfast Agreement.