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

Over the summer months, the news pertaining to the killings of Jock Davison and Kevin McGuigan shook people's confidence as to whether they thought the IRA had gone away, the peace process was moving on and things were developing and moving on. This has shaken the confidence of a great many people nationwide as to what they can foresee for the future and what they envisage about how things can proceed. However, much of the sometimes hysterical reaction in this House to some of the aforementioned incidents and attempts to try to score political points, possibly with a view to the forthcoming general election, serve no purpose. I believe the people will look beyond that and will make their own decisions on these issues. I have heard from many people that they will make their decision regardless of what the Government tries to say or regardless of how it attempts to engage in political point scoring on these issues.

One vitally important point across the entire peace process is it is only by making politics work and making the process of peace work that one can undermine the existence of paramilitary organisations across the Six Counties and across the two states, that is, by making sure it works, matters can be dealt with fairly and openly and people can get the answers they deserve. Under the Good Friday Agreement, one sees victims and families seeking answers 20, 30 or 40 years later but they still cannot get closure and cannot get responses from the British Government, which is and has been a party to the conflict all along. It continues to undermine the process and to undermine the finding of the truth and closure for those families and victims. This does much more to undermine stability than anything else, other than trying to coax parties to work together or whatever in Stormont and so on. These are the matters on which Members and the Irish Government should be concentrating. The Government should be forcing the British Government to live up to its responsibilities and to ensure that by doing so, paramilitaries can be undermined right across the board, regardless of who they are and who they claim to represent.

If one considers the recent Stormont House Agreement Bill published by the British Government, it contains nothing that will provide any of the answers or solutions I believe the families and victims need. There has been no consultation on the Bill. Victims were not consulted and have been ignored completely in this regard. Moreover, the British Government has set it up in such a way that it will have all the opt-outs it will need. As Members have seen repeatedly over the past 40 years, the British Government will be able to hide behind the issue of national security. It will allow the British Government to not deal with issues, not negotiate and not forward information to families. These are the matters on which the Government should be arguing and fighting the British Government tooth and nail to make sure that when it is passed, the legislation will provide for what the Stormont House Agreement was meant to provide, that is, mechanisms for dealing with the past, dealing with historical inquiries, dealing with information for victims and dealing with information in respect of events that took place over the years of the Troubles.

If the Government continues to not engage with the British Government in this regard, we will revert to these crises continuously for ever more, probably until the whole conflict reignites in a disastrous way for the entire country. Consequently, the Government must engage fully. It must get the British Government to accept it was a party to the conflict and it must put it up to the British Government every step along the way to ensure that what emerges from the Stormont House Agreement will provide what is needed for people right across the North. This is of vital importance.

The Taoiseach spoke earlier about welfare being a matter for Stormont. In that case, how did the Minister allow it to be included in the Stormont House Agreement? How did the Government allow this to happen unless it was looking at its own political aims in this regard? The Government should make sure that welfare is removed from the Stormont House Agreement and that the British Government lives up to its obligations in order that the legislation actually reflects the needs of citizens right across the State.

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