Mr. Michael Blanch:

The committee for the commemoration of Irish Famine victims, CCIFV, has campaigned for and created a national Famine memorial day. The CCIFV is a family community-based group. Over the years, it has had links and close partnerships and friendships throughout this island, the neighbouring island and globally. The Bill being discussed today on Committee Stage is another piece of the jigsaw in the gigantic picture that is an Gorta Mór. The Bill will give stability, certainty and an equal footing and recognition with Easter and July remembrance days, that have fixed days. The Irish people, home and abroad, will know when the national Famine memorial day will take place when the Bill is passed. It will also solve the annual headache for the Minister and the committee.

On St. Patrick's Day, Ireland and the world turns green. It will do so on the third Sunday in May, when the national Famine commemoration day beds in and becomes more known. The Bill will have a major part to play in this. Ireland is unique. We are the only country in the world with a Famine day in its national calendar.

Other countries would cherish the opportunity to have this day without the pain and loss. They will follow in support, spirit and solidarity with Ireland on Famine day. Famine and hunger are still a blight and constant foe for humanity today in a world of plenty. The international overseas Famine memorial day can and should be held on the same day, the second or third Sunday in May, wherever green is worn, like St. Patrick's Day.

The Bill allows the Taoiseach to select the location for the national Famine commemoration day, as can be done for the international day. There is not a blade of grass, a sod of earth, a village, town or city that has escaped the scars and wounds of an Gorta Mór; selecting a location will not be problem. Likewise for the international day, the Irish Famine global family has left a large footprint and casts a long shadow on the planet, with over a 100 Famine memorials remembering those dark times, days and years in Irish history.

With Brexit confusion reigning, the unifying cement of the national Famine commemoration is relevant as it is an all-island event crossing the Border, for example in 2015 in Newry. Members of the CCIFV were the harbingers for this happening in 2014 when we placed a marker at a paupers' and Famine mass grave at the old Newry workhouse, which today is the Daisy Hill hospital. The mass grave, like numerous other mass graves on or close to workhouse sites around the country, holds the bodies of Catholics, Protestants, dissenters and non-believers. One mass of humanity sleeping peacefully side by side: this is the universality of the great hunger. The 2014 Newry commemoration was multi-denominational and cross-community. The mayor of Newry officiated at the ceremony.

People at home and abroad are aware of the national Famine commemoration day and, like St. Patrick's Day, communities are holding an Gorta Mór events all over Ireland and overseas. London and other UK locations have held commemorations for a number of years, as have communities in America, Canada, Australia and other places of which we are not aware. The core of the national Famine commemoration day is remembrance of over 1 million innocent victims and another 2 million forced into exile. The nuclear-like fallout is still felt today, more than 170 years on. Ireland is the only country in the world whose population has not grown since the 19th century. This is not a statistic any country would wish to hold. The positives are the 70 million members of the Irish Famine global family who are proud to be Irish. If a small percentage of the many who to trace their Irish family ancestry, heritage and history come to Ireland, the tourism potential, if harnessed and promoted, could yield limitless revenue for the country as well as forging closer links with their adopted countries.

There are eight Departments and NGOs on the national Famine commemoration committee, all of which can contribute to planting the seed for future growth and promotion of the national Famine commemoration day at home and abroad. Education on the Famine in schools, although on the curriculum, is not compulsory. The CCIFV has the Lumper schools project, which is on the Department's scoilnet.iewebsite this year for the first time although the project has been running for five years. It is sponsored by Glens of Antrim Potatoes and is an all-island programme. The Lumper is a living artefact and a Famine history teacher.

When tourists or indeed Irish people, especially schoolchildren, call into the National Museum of Ireland there is not a plaque on a wall to recognise or honour the loss of so many in this important part of our history that changed Ireland and the world forever. An Gorta Mór gave the nation our national flag through the Young Irelanders' 1848 Famine rebellion led by William Smith O’Brien at the Ballingarry Famine Warhouse, which is now a national monument. That was the first time the Tricolour flew in battle. It was the birth and creation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, IRB, and the catalyst for the 1867 and 1916 rebellions that gave us our independence. An Gorta Mór has been buried like the victims in omission, silence and denial in the National Museum of Ireland since the State's foundation and we are now coming up to the State's centenary.

The vision and opinions of the CCIFV are lengthy but need to be considered. I will now share our condensed proposals for amendments to the National Famine Commemoration Day Bill 2017. The rotation protocol around the four provinces is to be sacrosanct. It is not to be broken as was done this year when the commemoration was kept in Munster for two years in succession at the expense of all the four provinces, to accommodate a Cabinet meeting - a first for a university to hold one - and to launch a book online. The national Famine commemoration day is bigger than both of these.

The international Famine commemoration day is to be held on the second or third Sunday in May in conjunction with the one at home. This is to bring the Irish global Famine family into unity and inclusion. We will all stand in remembrance of the victims and in celebration of the exiles and survivors on the same day, the second or third Sunday in May, Famine day. On St. Patrick's Day, the Irish global family at home and abroad unites as one and the same should happen on the national Famine commemoration day.

The doubt and uncertainty attached to the timing of both the national and the international day since inauguration in 2008 will finally be consigned to history with the passing of this Bill. It will bring clarity, certainty and stability for the Irish people and communities home and abroad who hold commemorations and the Taoiseach, Minister and the national Famine commemoration committee will be able to plan years in advance. The Bill is an important part of the holistic story and history of an Gorta Mór. Gabhaim buíochas don choiste. I am grateful to the committee for giving the CCIFV this opportunity for community involvement.