Professor Colin Harvey:

I thank Deputy Adams for his questions, on which I will make a number of reflections. The Deputy will not get an argument from me on the British Government's track record on international agreements and human rights. There is a sense that international pressure is important and that internationalising some of these issues can have an enormous effect. What has been interesting about the Brexit discussions and the involvement of the United States and other parties is the way in which the British Government has been the weaker party. I cannot remember another time in history where the British Government has been the weaker party in a negotiation where the Irish Government has been on the other side of the table. In the context of that sort of negotiation, it is vital that outcomes are maximised, particularly where people are talking about the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts. There is an imperative on the European Union, and the Irish State as an EU member state, to ensure that in the negotiations going forward the language of the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts means something. We are talking here about a right provided for in the Good Friday Agreement. Congress in the US has made itself clear in relation to any future free trade agreement and the commitments that would apply under the Good Friday Agreement. Again, this is a right under the agreement so the more international pressure that is brought to bear on the British Government, the better. It will not do so on its own but it can be encouraged to do the right thing in relation to the agreement. As has been said, the British Government does not have a wonderful track record in implementing a number of aspects of the agreement.

Regarding the paragraph 52 issue, we have discussed a range of human rights and equality issues today. I want to speak personally again. I am an Irish citizen living in the North and this has a direct effect on me. I underline the human rights of everyone in the North and on this island but there is a big problem in relation to the Good Friday Agreement that we have to state. Certain Irish citizens are second class citizens on this island by some distance. Irish citizens in the North who are now facing into Brexit will find themselves being second or third class European Union citizens as well. That is a fundamental problem. Now, 21 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, there is a stark problem with regard to parity of esteem, mutual respect and equality of treatment that specifically impacts upon Irish citizens in a broader context of a human rights implementation gap. We have to be able to say that out loud and it has to be addressed. It is one of the reasons, but not the only one, that the North is in the mess it is in.

Deputy Adams is absolutely right that remarkable and courageous civic leadership has been at the forefront of achieving change in relation to rights and equality. I can only commend Emma and Jake on taking this courageous stand. As I have made clear, they speak for many others in the work that they have done. The Deputy also rightly raised the issue of capacity. There comes a point in a range of civic conversations on this island, and on the question of civic leadership, where governmental resourcing and governmental level support and assistance are urgently required. The Government needs to move beyond reassurances and the welcome warm words about the Good Friday Agreement and match those with actual practical action to support the implementation of the agreement in all its parts.