you from having your dinner at hillsborough with your select committee members. you're very gracious about being moved to another restaurant. i did not decide to go to northern ireland to make it difficult for you to have dinner read hillsboro. >> i would never suggest such a thing. >> it seems to me at this point that there were certain issues which, together with the case search -- toiseacaoiseach of ir, brian cowen, i could help move forward. what we did in the three days was to provide a pathway for the completion of that negotiation. the fact that these negotiations are taking time is hardly surprising because there are a number of issues still outstanding from the st. andrews agreement which were unresolved, but i hope, on the basis of what had been done by both the ministers, the foreign minister of ireland, and our secretary of state, that we are moving things, inching things, forward. in the end, this agreement has to be an agreement of the parties themselves in northern ireland and we're there to help them reach that agreement. previous agreements may h