Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Of course, this was a violation of our rights as citizens and of the rights of the people who voted for us. More importantly, it was a violation of the right of the Irish people to freedom of information, to the facts about what was happening in the conflict and to a balanced view of how and why that conflict continued.

It was not only information about the conflict that was denied to people - it was much wider than that. If the speaker was from Sinn Féin, no matter what he or she was speaking about, and no matter in what capacity, the ban was imposed. As the High Court challenge of trade unionist and Sinn Féin member Councillor Larry O'Toole established, the ban was extended illegally by the broadcasters themselves. The 20th anniversary of the ending of the section 31 ban has not been sufficiently marked in the media, but in one piece broadcast by RTE a media lecturer stated that when he tells students today about section 31, they find it incredible that such blatant political censorship existed well within living memory.

Section 31 was only possible because of the deeply partitionist mindset that was so prevalent among the dominant political forces in this State for so long. They claimed to be protecting the State, but in reality they were protecting their own political patch, the corrupt conservative set-up that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party had kept in place for decades. It suited most of them to turn their backs on the Six Counties and on the direct effects of partition on the Border counties in particular and on Ireland as a whole, and that was even before the armed conflict began in the early 1970s.

As the conflict went on, the partitionist and censorship ethos among the political elite in this State spawned a mindset in which republicans North and South were demonised and the entire responsibility for the conflict placed upon their shoulders. I regret to say that mindset remains prevalent among some in the Oireachtas. The other day in the Seanad, in the course of a debate on the charity sector, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, because he could not take criticism, interrupted Senator David Cullinane to say, "The actions of a few resulted in the deaths of 3,000 people on this island." We know the so-called few he was referring to and it was not the members of successive British Cabinets.

It would be useful in this decade of centenaries for the Government of this State to ask its British counterpart to reflect on the role of its predecessors over ten decades in imposing partition, suppressing democracy and fostering sectarianism in Ireland, as they most certainly have done. It was exactly 100 years ago, in 1914, that the British Government first hatched the plot to partition Ireland, as part of the climb-down in the face of armed Unionist opposition to Home Rule. British officers at the Curragh mutinied lest they be asked to go North to keep order among their Unionist brethren - there was not only one mutiny at the Curragh.

It was 40 years ago this May that the same unholy alliance between armed Unionism and the British Crown forces resulted in the no-warning bombings of Dublin and Monaghan and the deliberate killing of 33 civilians, including a pregnant woman, in the single worst loss of life in the conflict. That 40th anniversary will fall on 17 May, just a short time away. Four decades on, the survivors and the bereaved of Dublin and Monaghan have yet to receive truth and justice. The British Government has yet to release all of the information in its possession. I urge a far more proactive approach from the Irish Government to this and to the other fatal acts of collusion between British State forces and loyalist paramilitaries that led to loss of life in this jurisdiction. I have lost count of the number of times I have had to make that appeal to the former Taoisigh Mr. Ahern and Mr. Cowen and to the Taoiseach, but I and my colleagues here will continue to make it. We are, after all, simply seeking the implementation of the call on the British Government made unanimously and repeatedly by this House.

Most of the fatal acts of collusion in this State occurred in the Border counties. This, one of the many tragic aspects of the effect of partition and conflict on the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth, is not in the past. The Border counties still suffer both the legacy of decades of economic neglect and the current ill-effects of partition and the failure of regional policy by successive Governments in this State. Those counties need continuing attention and I urge especially that assistance be given to the struggling indigenous small and medium-sized businesses on which the local economies in the Border counties are based.

There is no excuse for either the British or the Irish Governments to stand over any delay in advancing with key cross-Border infrastructural projects such as the Carlingford Narrow Water bridge and the Ulster Canal. With regard to the Ulster Canal, I have been in touch with the office of the Northern Ireland Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, Carál Ní Chuilín MLA, my party colleague. She assures me that both she and her counterpart here, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, are fully committed to this project, and I welcome that affirmation. As I pointed out in the debate on the Six Counties last year, the North-South Ministerial Council agreed to proceed with the Ulster Canal project in 2007. In the intervening period, we have seen the economic collapse in this State and a parallel contraction in the North. Despite this, the Ulster Canal project was kept alive.

Permission was granted last year for the Northern section by Environment Minister, Alex Atwood, and by Clones Town Council and Monaghan County Council for the section in this jurisdiction.

The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, has advised that the earliest the contract could be awarded would be late 2014 with a completion date in spring 2017. I urge the Minister to do all in his power to expedite this process and to encourage his colleagues to do so. I also urge him to maximise the possible EU funding for the project from the Peace IV programme.

The Ulster Canal project is about greatly enhancing one of the finest landscapes in Ireland for locals and tourists alike, regenerating rural areas that have long been neglected and delivering a tangible peace dividend to Border communities that were neglected for far too long. It is time to get the work on the ground under way.

In the course of his contribution, the Fianna Fáil leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, made his by now customary but quite pathetic effort to lump Sinn Féin in with the DUP as somehow jointly placing obstacles in the way of the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the expansion of the all-Ireland institutions. Does anyone but himself actually believe this?

Quite blatantly, Deputy Martin totally misrepresented Martin McGuinness by claiming that he joined with Peter Robinson in opposing the convening of a civic forum. The opposite is the case, as any informed voice in this House would know. Sinn Féin has advocated a civic forum, both in the Six Counties and nationally, as provided for under the Good Friday Agreement. Deputy Martin should set aside the political posturing and get his facts right. He may mistakenly think that his approach will do his party some good in electoral competition with Sinn Féin in this State, but it contributes absolutely nothing to building the peace process.

We should always be conscious of the tremendous progress which has been made over the past decade and a half. That needs to be emphasised here today. We should never be complacent or take for granted what has been built. We should have an all-Ireland vision, as befits our name - Dáil Éireann and Oireachtas Éireann.

For our part, we in Sinn Féin, will never cease our efforts to promote reconciliation, combat sectarianism, create a sense of common purpose on this island and fulfil the dream of millions past and present of a new united Ireland, built in agreement among the people who share this island and achieved solely by peaceful and democratic means.

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