Former US president Bill Clinton has said the Good Friday Agreement was never supposed to be used to obstruct governance in Northern Ireland, adding it “is time to get this show on the road”.

Mr Clinton was speaking at the end of a three-day event at Queen’s University in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which largely brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

One of the measures agreed was the establishment of a devolved government for Northern Ireland based on a system of powersharing between nationalists and unionists.

However, the new institutions created under the agreement have collapsed several times, most recently when the Democratic Unionist Party exercised a veto and brought down devolution in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Mr Clinton said there needs to be a functioning government to deal with issues in Northern Ireland.

He said: “Do you still have problems? Sure. We need more economic growth, we need less inequality, you have got some health issues you need to resolve and you’ve got to have functioning government to do all that.

“I think that is what the British Government wants, I think that is what the Irish Government wants and I know it’s what the people outside want.

“I ask you not to be discouraged, this is human affairs, there are very few permanent victories or defeats in human affairs. All these old ugly problems are always rearing their heads. You just have to suck it up and beat it back and deal with it.

He said the collapse of powersharing in Northern Ireland was a “perfectly predictable result”.

“Whenever you make a big deal like this and people have to compromise and everybody wants to compromise, then they wake up the next day and a certain number of people, who almost always vote in elections, have buyer’s remorse,” he said.

He added that this makes governments more vulnerable and there was a period where it went “down and up, down and up”.

Mr Clinton used the speech to support the Windsor Framework for post-Brexit trading arrangements as “the best of both worlds”.

“This Windsor agreement – seems to me anyway, as an outsider who cares very much – is about the best deal you could get to split the baby.”

He said it would allow the benefits of access to the European markets and the necessity of access to the UK market to be reconciled.

Speaking about what needs to happen in the future, Mr Clinton said: “Now that I think the biggest roadblock that Brexit posed for Northern Ireland’s political and economic future has been dramatically mitigated, it’s to div out what the heck practically is at issue here – not rhetorically, not ideologically – practically at issue.

Hillary Clinton, Former US president Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (Niall Carson/PA)

“What else needs to change to protect the day-to-day legitimate pursuit of making a living and to deal with it?

“But this whole deal was never supposed to be an engine of obstruction.

“The agreement was never supposed to be used to make sure there could be no self-government.

“We know what the votes were at the last election, we can add them up, the allocation of seats in the parliamentary body, and it is time to get this show on the road.”

Reflecting on the agreement more generally, Mr Clinton said it has lasted because people wanted it.

“To me, all of this comes down to a very simple question: What is the meaning of this peace agreement that’s lasted for 25 years and what should happen in the next 25 years?

“I can tell you it’s a different place than it was in 1995 when I first came here.

“Then, it was a big deal for Gerry Adams and I to shake hands on the street, you would have thought the pavement was about to crack open.

“It’s lasted 25 years, most peace agreements fall apart in less than a decade. That’s worth remembering.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood MP, former US president Bill Clinton, Rachel Eastwood and governor Terrence McAuliffe (Liam McBurney/PA)

“It lasted, I think, because the people demanded it, because the process was really good and Senator Mitchell did a brilliant job of leading it and negotiating it.

“And the parties knew what they really needed, which was knowing that they would always have a voice in the future of Northern Ireland and it mandated cooperation. It forced it in a way that few agreements do, there would be renouncing violence, shared decision-making, shared economic benefits.

“(Bertie) Ahern gave up the Irish constitutional claim to the counties in the North and in return the agreement said that this area would have special relationships with the Irish Republic while maintaining its presence in the United Kingdom.

“And it worked, except when it didn’t, when the government went down.”

Mr Clinton also said the idea that those involved in the Good Friday Agreement process were better than people today as “the biggest load of bull I ever heard in my life”.

“Those of us who were there then should thank god every day that we were lucky enough to be where we were to have an opportunity when time and circumstances permitted to play a small role in a big lift in the human condition.”

He added: “I try to live in the present and for the future and so should we all.”