New Secretary of State arrives in NI

The new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, has arrived in Belfast today.

Mr Hain, who is the Member of Parliament for Neath and replaces the outgoing Paul Murphy in Northern Ireland, also remains Secretary of State for Wales.

Commenting on his appointment on Friday, Mr Hain said he was “very pleased” to have been asked to take on “this unique and challenging portfolio”.

“As the Prime Minister has made clear, Northern Ireland remains a priority and the Good Friday Agreement continues to provide the way forward,” Mr Hain said. “There remain the two outstanding issues of ending paramilitary activity and criminality, and securing unionist participation in shared government. With effort and goodwill on all sides, I have no doubt that these issues can be resolved.”

Mr Hain said he would be contacting all the politcal parties and well as representatives in the Irish and American Goverments “about how we can make further progress” on the current peace process.

“The key challenge to us all is to achieve the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. The Agreement is the route to peace, stability and prosperity for all the people of Northern Ireland. They deserve no less,” he added.

Mr Hain was first elected as Member of Parliament for the Neath constituency in April 1991.

Since 1997 he has held the post of Minister in the Welsh Office, Minister for Africa in the Foreign Office, Minister for Energy at the DTI and Minister for Europe at the Foreign Office.

He was promoted to the Cabinet in October 2002 when he became Secretary of State for Wales and later became Leader of the House of Commons in June 2003 while retaining his position as Secretary for Wales.

(MB/GB)