Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having had to step out for while in order to go to the Chamber. I was listening to Mr. Ahern and reflecting on my formative years, which were the years of negotiation leading up to the Good Friday Agreement when I watched his significant and important contribution. What struck me was his regular contribution to politics in the North. As Mr. Ahern said, it used to dominate the time in the Oireachtas.

I was thinking of a neighbour and friend of mine who passed away a few years ago, John Doherty or "Johnny Doc", as we knew him. Johnny was a veteran IRA man who was interned as a teenage schoolboy in the 1940s. His family fought hard to have him released because he was 15. He was subsequently released but when he turned 16, they came back and interned him again. I remember Johnny saying to a colleague of mine that he felt he was living in a united Ireland because there was not a day he did not turn on the TV to see the Taoiseach or the President in the city, both of them involved and engaged.

We have talked much today about building and restoring relationships such as British-Irish, unionist-nationalist relationships but there is also an island of Irish-Irish relationships that need to be rebuilt. Ms Gildernew touched on it, and Mr. Ahern reflected on the sort of NIMBYism that exists in this institution with regard to speaking rights for elected representatives, not to vote on legislation or finance, but just for scrutiny roles similar to this committee. I asked something similar of other witnesses in this round of meetings regarding how the State could act in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement in the context of delivering.

Mr. Ahern led the charge on Articles 2 and 3 at the time. Some people think that Articles 2 and 3 were scrubbed when, in fact, they were replaced. There is an obligation to ensure that everyone born on the island has the right to be part of the Irish nation. I am keen to get Mr. Ahern's view on how those articles are given effect to, as opposed to its being inserted and that being it. How does the State and the Government do that with regard to speaking rights on non-contentious committees? I am sure this will surprise Mr. Ahern, if he is not already aware of it, that we had a Joint Committee on Autism on which parties in this House voted against having MLAs and MPs. Autism affects people throughout Ireland. The cross-Border autism centre is based in Armagh. It receives funding from the Executive.

How does Mr. Ahern think practical effect will be given to Articles 2 and 3. How will we get to the point again whereby the Government will be respectful of all views and will not brand views around constitutional change as being divisive? A notion has crept into the vernacular, of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as if Ireland ends at Dundalk. There has been a recent change in tone. How do we get the Government and the State to act and think nationally? How do we get it to be present and engaged nationally?

Mr. Ahern will be shocked to hear that I am not from a Fianna Fáil family. The reason I mention Johnny Doc's statement from way back when is that a constant memory of mine is watching the news reports at the time and seeing how people in the community and city I come from saw Mr. Ahern - and his predecessor - as being their Taoiseach. It is safe to say that Mr. Ahern saw us as his fellow citizens and countrymen. I do not know if that is a prevailing feature of the current Government. I am interested in how we meet in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement and the replacement Articles 2 and 3 in order to get back into a situation-----