Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the St. Andrews Agreement, a commitment was made to Acht na Gaeilge. This has not been implemented but the current determination of the British Government and Unionist parties to implement hugely destructive cuts to the fabric of society in the North represents one of the gravest threats yet to the institutions. Prior to last week's British Tory Budget, £1.5 billion had already been slashed from the Executive's budget in addition to cuts to welfare spending at Westminster. This austerity agenda has caused hardship for many families and impacted badly on public services. Sinn Féin’s priorities have been to ensure efficient functioning of the power sharing institutions. People should remember that we are in partnership with some parties that do not want to be in partnership with us. We have endeavoured to create jobs and reduce unemployment, to protect the most vulnerable in society and to bring forward working budgets that ensure the delivery of front-line services. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, MLA, has played a central role in the Executive's successful job creation strategy that has seen unemployment figures falling. During the negotiations at Stormont House, we tried to strengthen these objectives by working to create a coalition against Tory cuts within the Executive and wider society and by setting out an alternative to austerity.

Part of this was agreeing to the budget for 2015-16. This was done by Sinn Féin in good faith in the context of a finalised budget with no further cuts and in anticipation of the delivery of all aspects of the Stormont House Agreement. Last month, Sinn Féin agreed to give conditional support to technical legislation giving effect to the budget that we and the other parties had agreed during the Stormont House negotiations last Christmas. Sinn Féin's support for the Stormont House Agreement was based on full protection for all successful claims for social security benefits under the control of the Executive for the next six years. In February, the DUP defaulted on this part of the agreement. Sinn Féin’s decision to conditionally support legislation for the budget provided a space in which solutions could be found.

However, the ability of the parties locally to do this has been severely undermined by four years of Tory cuts and the cuts promised by the British Chancellor, George Osborne. These are cuts to the income of working families and further cuts to public services. This British budget is a clear assault on working families and those on low pay. Instead of austerity, the Northern Ireland Executive needs a sustainable and workable budget, investment and powers to grow the economy and deliver public services. Tá an seasamh a ghlac Sinn Féin ar an gceist seo de réir a chéile an-soiléir. Sinn Féin is very clear that it is opposed to the policy of austerity in any part of this island. Watch this space - we will not be agents of cuts imposed on citizens in the North at the behest of the Tories. Others who may be prepared to perform this role should be mindful that these cuts will affect Unionist and loyalist citizens as well as everyone else.

Sinn Féin wants the political institutions to work and to deliver for citizens. Despite all the difficulties, the Executive, the Assembly and all-Ireland institutions have worked better for citizens than the years of direct rule by unaccountable British ministers and decades of one-party rule by the Ulster Unionist Party so our preference is for the current institutions to stay in place but this cannot be at any price. Sinn Féin does not expect conservative governments in Dublin or London to change their political or ideological positions. That is fair enough. They are both wedded to the austerity agenda. However, we do expect them, particularly the Government here, to accept the special circumstances of the North as a society coming out of conflict. I welcome the private remarks made to me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. I do not know if he said it publicly. He said that he accepts that the North is a special place. We expect both governments to press and accept the need for an economic dividend to the necessary process of peace-building and change. We demand that they fully implement the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements. I said earlier, during the debate on the motion on the events at Ballymurphy, that both governments should implement those elements of the Stormont House Agreement that deal with the past and legacy issues. The two governments can and should proceed with establishing the historical investigations unit, improving legacy inquests and establishing the independent commission on information retrieval.

Sinn Féin will endeavour to maintain front-line services and strive to protect vulnerable citizens but the Irish Government needs to play a more active and constructive role in the North. It will find that it will be welcomed within Unionism. Thinking Unionism knows that the way forward is not through burning effigies on 12 July. It knows that the way forward is through more tolerance, respect and co-operation. They see that as working to our mutual advantage. I have accused this Government in the past of being detached in its approach but it is not unique. It was also a feature of previous Administrations, including those of which Deputy Martin was a member despite their role in the beginning of the peace process. We need to be invigorated and actively engaged with the parties in the North but most particularly, engaged as with the Government in London.

It has been my experience that citizens in this State expect the Oireachtas to be proactively involved in the peace process. Citizens in the North expect the same. There is a partitionist mindset. I know some people are offended when I say this but it is at the heart of the work of the Dublin establishment. The Dáil needs to break out of this partitionist mindset. Any government that truly wanted a united Ireland, and I have yet to meet one, would work towards it and understand this means the unity of all the people, including those who see themselves as British. It means pursuing every avenue to promote greater all-Ireland co-operation and working to build relationships on the basis of equality between all the people on this island.

There is also an ongoing need to enlist the support from our friends internationally, including those in the US. It is no accident that Irish America and its representatives have often been more informed, involved and progressive on these issues than successive governments here have been. It means genuine outreach efforts to Unionists on the basis of equality and undoing ingrained partitionist thinking on the part of policy makers here. When one thinks of the Office of the Taoiseach, we should see someone who is a champion of the peace process and a champion of the people in the North. I do not mind the slings and arrows from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour or other parties here but the peace process should be above party politics.

With the honourable exception of Albert Reynolds, it has been my experience that governments here have adapted easily into the role of junior partner. Leaving aside politics, it baffles me as an Irish person how we do not stand up for our own rights as a nation and do not deal with the British on the basis of equality. This is always what I have tried to bring to engagements in which I have been involved without being dogmatic or domineering because the British always respect their national interests and act accordingly. I have previously said that at the Stormont negotiations, the British government was allowed to set the agenda and the pace of negotiations. I urge political leaders here to accept that the success and stability of the peace and political process in the North and the all-island institutions are bigger than any point scoring or other political machinations in this State.

I am always torn between ignoring what Deputy Martin says and responding to him because his remarks are usually negative, unhelpful and ill-informed. They are not so much ill-informed because he knows the story but deliberately and maliciously dishonest.

He decries events in the North-----

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