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

I am very glad that, earlier today, we had the opportunity to agree unanimously a motion by all Members of this House in regard to the Ballymurphy massacre. I recall meeting the families a year ago and speaking to them, as we spoke to them this morning. When the proposal was put forward by the Ballymurphy families in regard to an independent panel, I recall one comment made by Alex Attwood, MLA, who stated:

Today has other significance. It is that it is the families who seek truth who know best how to address the pain of the past.

I am very glad the motion refers to the need for truth. All of us who know the families of the victims of the terrible deeds of state forces and paramilitary organisations, who have not yet received any justice or seen people prosecuted for those murders, know that the least they deserve is the truth. That is the clear message that comes across at all times. I sincerely hope the British Government will be more responsive to the motion in regard to Ballymurphy than it has been in regard to the unanimous motions passed in this House in 2008 and 2011 in regard to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

I refer to the comments of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, about the thuggery and hooliganism we witnessed on the streets of north Belfast on Monday night. All of us would have thought we would not be in this Chamber once again referring to such acts of violence. I share the view of the Minister in his concluding remarks in which he stated very clearly that politics must work. Unfortunately, it is not working at present in Northern Ireland to the extent it should. Decent, law-abiding families in Belfast were once again the victims of this dysfunction. A very small minority can bring a city to its knees but we must be clear that those people can be totally unrepresentative of the community.

The backlog of unresolved political issues in the North is long and growing daily. I am struck by the straightforward message of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, in his comments regarding the future of the Executive and the Assembly. I presume I am not misreading his message when he paints a stark and chilling picture in regard to the future of those institutions. We sincerely hope the brinkmanship can be ended and progress made, and that the commitments that were entered into by political parties on 23 December last will be honoured. The blame game as to who has responsibility for this has been well rehearsed, but the political establishment is only in place because the people have continued to support it. If the leadership of the DUP and Sinn Féin do not work harder and more successfully to resolve the outstanding issues that are paralysing Northern public life, the people themselves will wonder whether it is worth even trying to make politics work. The message that must go out across all of the island is that politics must work for every community and that extremists must be marginalised.

From the Minister's comments, it is obvious the political paralysis that has gripped Northern Ireland threatens to pull down the institutions that were painfully put in place after much negotiation and hard work by many people. One would think, listening to Deputy Adams, that Governments here took no interest in bringing about a peaceful solution in Northern Ireland when that could not be further from the truth. It is vital that renewed momentum is put behind the Stormont House Agreement and genuine progress is made in getting the institutions to deliver for people on the ground. Deputy Micheál Martin quoted earlier the statistics in regard to child poverty and poverty among older citizens, and he outlined how disadvantaged some communities are in Northern Ireland. Surely politics and the work in the Northern Ireland Assembly and around the Executive table should not be about sharing out the spoils but about working towards a better society for all communities.

Peace has to be about more than just the absence of violence. As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish and British Governments have a special role in driving on that process, which must never be forgotten. We must also realise it is an international agreement and that the commitments made under the Good Friday Agreement must be honoured. The Northern Executive faces a serious financial challenge, which has been made even worse by the recent budget introduced by the Tories at Westminster. Unfortunately, deadlines with regard to progress that was expected to be achieved over recent months in regard to other elements of the Stormont House Agreement have not been met. None the less, I sincerely hope progress can be made on the other elements of the Stormont House Agreement. It is vital that the Government, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, the British Government and the Executive parties breathe fresh life into the Stormont House Agreement. It is the best chance of getting momentum into the overall peace process and ensuring that many of the outstanding aspects of the Good Friday Agreement and successive agreements prior to the Stormont House Agreement are met.

The Governments have not lived up to certain of their responsibilities in regard to implementing different aspects of the Good Friday Agreement. However, there are aspects of that Agreement that the Northern Executive has failed to achieve. Deputy Adams referred to the civic forum. My understanding is that this is solely a matter for the Northern Executive to establish. As I have previously asked both Deputy Gilmore, as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the current Minister, Deputy Flanagan, who in the name of God could be afraid of a civic forum? Why should there be opposition to a civic forum? Why can the Northern Executive parties not put in place a mechanism such as that? It is not a budgetary matter or a constitutional matter, and it should not be a political matter. That type of incremental implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and successive agreements should be achieved.

The Minister will have heard me on a number of occasions in the House raise the issue of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the absolute failure of the British Government to respond to the unanimous motions passed in this House. We know that was the single day of greatest carnage on our island during that very troubled period, when 33 innocent people were killed on the streets of Dublin and Monaghan and 300 people were injured. We know there was collusion between British state forces and the UVF in carrying out those bombings. We know, from the good work carried out by Anne Cadwallader, about the collusion of British state forces and paramilitary organisations, North and South - paramilitary organisations that masqueraded under the banner of republicanism and other paramilitary organisations associated with loyalism. Many innocent people were killed due to that collusion and due to the murderous campaigns of many paramilitary organisations as well.

We meet regularly with the families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Those people want the truth and it is the least they deserve. They have been grieving for more than 41 years and they have never got the truth in regard to who carried out the bombings. The Minister will also have heard me refer to the bombings in Belturbet and other parts of Monaghan, where there was also collusion with Northern state forces and where nobody has been brought to justice for those desperate deeds.

The legacy of the past, parades and flags are an important part of the different agreements since 1998, reinforced in the Stormont House Agreement of December 2014 It is essential that we make progress on them.

Both the BBC and RTE did good public service broadcasting in the past months in a number of very thorough documentaries on collusion. The full truth is needed in the interests of true reconciliation. The horror of the Troubles inflicted by the provisional IRA and other so-called republican groups, loyalist paramilitaries and agents of the British security forces must be fully exposed. It is essential that we get to the truth. I refer again to the very good work carried out by Anne Cadwallader who, in her book Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, documents the campaign of terror carried out by paramilitary organisations, in many instances with the collusion of British state forces, where so many innocent people were murdered. So many of those families have not seen justice administered at all.

I appeal to the Minister that, in the difficult circumstances surrounding the implementation of the Stormont House agreement, different aspects of that agreement be progressed as quickly as possible. We all know that parades and dealing with the legacy of the past are not simple issues on which to get a comprehensive solution but they are issues on which progress needs to be made.

I refer again to the potential of North-South economic co-operation. There is a need for further economic development in the Border region. We need further co-operation in the areas of health, education and developing trade. We need co-operation at political and central Government Department levels as well as through State agencies. There is huge potential through the working of the agreement to ensure a better island for all the people. Worthwhile employment can be created and is so badly needed throughout this island. Working together and maximising the potential of the agreements will be for the benefit of all the people.

See this speech in context