John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would say eight minutes will be plenty. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak. I do not think I have ever spoken on matters relating to Northern Ireland as a Member of the Dáil. There have been some very interesting contributions. I have listened to most of the debate earlier today and this evening. I found myself in the unusual position of agreeing with a large chunk of what Deputy Ó Cuív had to say, which is a political first from my perspective. I want to emphasise some of the points he made about the practical efforts that people, particularly Members of the Oireachtas, can make in fostering relations between people on both sides of the Border.

I have been a regular visitor to Northern Ireland in my 35 years on the planet. My late father was a much travelled man, had a deep interest in history and politics and travelled to many parts of the world, including spending a week in Baghdad in the 1970s. I had a discussion with him before he died five years ago and found he had never been to Northern Ireland. He held quite strongly nationalistic views, as I do. I was struck by Deputy Feighan's outline of his family's involvement. If one goes back far enough, most Members of the House on all sides, including my family, have people who were involved in political struggle around the time this State was founded in the 1910s and early 1920s.

I do not want to spend all my time talking about the past. Deputy Ó Cuív mentioned the recent Haass talks. There has been some negative commentary and some people have stated that they were a complete failure. They were not. They are the basis for further discussion and conciliation between the communities. As somebody who is a regular visitor but has no immediate family living in Northern Ireland, I see particular difficulties for the two communities at the margins, whether dissident republicanism or - a more visible threat - the flags protest. Some loyalist communities feel themselves to be politically marginalised.

I was in Belfast for quite some time this summer and I took the opportunity to spend an evening close to confrontation points near the shops in the Ardoyne. I witnessed some of the activities and was struck by the fact that so many people were involved on that particular sunny night, while it gets little media coverage on this side of the Border. They obviously feel a disconnect from the parties that traditionally would have represented them. That reality has not been grasped or understood and is not even spoken about that much. For one reason or another that sector of Northern Ireland society feels politically marginalised. That is not a good thing because the history of the conflict is that those who feel marginalised may take drastic action. We need to ensure that whether communities are republican or loyalist in their outlook, they do not feel marginalised. I commend many of the efforts the Sinn Féin party has made in the recent past to ensure the current largely peaceful situation exists on our island.

I was born in the late 1970s, as my name would suggest. My name also suggests that I might be expected to hold particular political views on Northern Ireland. I come from a family that was politically interested but not politically involved. My first political memories are of waking up to go to school and listening to radio reports about who had been blown up, murdered, maimed or injured the night before. The fact that that is not happening is something we take for granted a bit too much. I commend those involved in ensuring that it is no longer happening. We should not rake over the past.

Language is important. I agree with much of what the previous speaker, Deputy O'Brien, said, but some of his language was a little rash in terms of other Opposition parties and the role they have played. All the political parties in this Chamber, and the non-aligned people, could rightfully claim some credit for the situation of broad peace that exists on our island. It is a question of trying to ensure that peace is sustained into the future and extended to those communities on both sides, but particularly to the loyalist community, which feels marginalised. That marginalisation cannot be allowed to develop into something much worse. A number of initiatives have been undergone recently.

The fact that Northern Ireland is not so prominent in our political discussion any more is reflective of the fact that it is not covered as much in our political media as it was heretofore. My first real political memory was the Anglo-Irish Agreement. I remember being at home as a rather strange seven-year-old baby-sitting my sister and seeing that the Government in the Republic, for the first time - through the efforts of then Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald - had a political input into the future of Northern Ireland. That was a significant development from which all other developments since have flowed.

I welcome the fact that in the last ten days the Taoiseach has engaged in a meeting with the families of those people who were murdered in the Ballymurphy massacre. A number of other outstanding inquiries and discussions need to be had regarding a permanent or long-lasting solution. These include the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the recent findings of the Smithwick tribunal and the very necessary desire of the families of the people now loosely referred to as the disappeared to have some degree of finality brought to their situations by finding the last resting places of their loved ones. That is why the Haass talks, while they may not have been immediately successful, at least provide another step along the road towards, hopefully, a more permanent and long-lasting solution in Northern Ireland.

I do not want to be too party political, but Deputy Ó Caoláin, with whom I often agree, provided an interpretation of the thoughts of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, as he spoke in the Seanad last week when he said he was referring to a small group that led to 3,000 deaths during the course of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Had the Minister wanted to pinpoint a particular group, he would have. He has never been known to be slow to speak his mind on particular issues as they arise. I was not aware that Deputy Ó Caoláin was able to read the minds of Cabinet Ministers.

I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion. The major outstanding issues I mentioned in my contribution can be resolved. The Haass talks provide a step towards that resolution.

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