Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Carroll MacNeill mentioned the Good Friday Agreement and I will go into the legislation on that. Parity of esteem and everything else was very carefully placed in the Good Friday Agreement. Some of that legislation has been enacted partially but a lot of it has yet to be enacted. One of the difficulties we have within the context of the Good Friday Agreement and the arrangements in the North of Ireland is because sectarianism is clearly one of the big issues and continues to be the big issue. That is one of the reasons there has been resistance from almost every level of society. With such a divided society it has been difficult to bring in the kind of legislation that would work and set up the grounds of equality that we seek to achieve. I take the point clearly that we do not want to have a situation where we have different standards on the one island. That point has been well made but perhaps others have a view on the matter.

I believe that we need to be removing things with great caution. We do not want to be in a situation where we inhibit or in any way restrict people's freedom of speech or where we remove or in any way smother civil discourse. That is something that we need to take care of.