Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Stormont House Agreement is the latest in a series of agreements put in place since the Good Friday Agreement to deal with issues arising from the peace process. It is interesting that the first two pages of the agreement deal with the implementation of austerity in the North.

In his contribution the Taoiseach said the agreement was unique in including so-called sound economic principles. That is a failure of the document and the entire process. How has achieving peace and a fair society become the same as implementing austerity? That is the question that must be answered. The first two pages of the agreement read like a memorandum of understanding with the troika in the South. It is about the implementation of austerity, not about dealing with the issues that must be dealt with in the North - the past, a Bill of Rights and an Irish language Act. These are the things on which the Government should have been focused in negotiating the agreement. With an eye on the election here, the Government in the South has focused on narrow political aims, rather than dealing with and giving a proper focus to the outstanding issues of the conflict in the North. That is what it had its eye on in dealing with the agreement. Sinn Féin has made a brave attempt to justify the agreement in the House, but this is the conclusion of the road of compromises. It is unfortunate for Sinn Féin that it has come to adding austerity to an agreement which should be above that and the narrow views of the right-wing Government in the South and the Tory Government in England.

In terms of other parts of the agreement, it is ironic that there is a proposed oral history archive included in it. Will this go down the same road as the only other oral history archive, the one at Boston College? Will the archive be protected from the influence of the PSNI and British secret services and their access to the information provided by people who agree to participate? It will be very difficult to get anyone to agree to participate in an oral history archive given the history of how other archives have been dealt with in this process. The agreement states the archive will be free from political interference, but how can we have any faith in this given what has gone on in the past? The proposed independent commission on information retrieval might have some potential to deal with some of the issues in relation to the conflict and families getting some information on what happened to their loved ones. However, the same difficulties will be encountered in dealing with how information will be provided and the commitment of the British Government, in particular, to participate fully.

One of the major problems that has not been looked at is the significant issue in the Six Counties of the disenfranchisement of loyalist communities and how they can have real political leadership to represent their views. That is something that should have been considered in terms of the agreement and the Irish Government should have been active in trying to progress it. The agreement is completely silent on the issues around prisons as outlined by Deputy Mick Wallace. Certain actions in prisons and the treatment of prisoners who have opposed the Good Friday Agreement sow the seeds of future conflict. They are things that should be dealt with through these agreements to ensure the seeds are removed and that we do not slip back into conflict. The way prisoners are isolated within the CSU of Maghaberry Prison is one of the issues that needs to be deal with. We must remove the seeds of future conflict. These agreements are about removing these seeds and delivering peace, not about delivering austerity on the people of the North.

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