Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is very important to recognise the commitment that Mr. Bertie Ahern gave as leader of the Government at the time to amend Articles 2 and 3 of our Constitution to maintain the Good Friday Agreement. We amended those articles to enable this country to have a provision to have an united Ireland when we would have agreement, both North and South, in referenda, with the consent of the people as envisaged in the Downing Street Declaration. Putting that mechanism in place was very important was surely a statement of intent by Irish governments that we wanted to work towards a united Ireland. We did not have that mechanism previously, if the consent was there, both North and South. I am not suggesting it was but I recall very well going back to 1998 as a Member of the Oireachtas, we were not knocked down on the street by political parties campaigning for the Good Friday Agreement to be endorsed by the people. There were very few of us out on the streets campaigning and civic society was not but, thankfully, it was overwhelmingly endorsed with 94.2% of the people here and 72% in Northern Ireland. The political remit we all have is to implement that agreement.