Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I begin by wishing Martin McGuinness well for a full recovery. He is someone we have always found very fair and friendly to deal with and we send our best wishes to Martin and his family.

The message from the Green Party, North and South, is that we do not think this election is necessary or should have been called. It will do damage, or will certainly create risks of real damage, to the peace process that has developed over previous decades. We do not see that it will necessarily advance the cause of people, North or South.

The scandal erupted around the renewable heating incentive and my colleague, Stephen Agnew MLA, has called it as well as anyone. He was one of the first to raise concerns about the nature of the scheme and the fact that it created the potential for a massive loss to the public. He has set out practical proposals to deal with the return of the potential loss, which our party has said could be even larger than some commentators have said, by the introduction of a windfall tax system whereby any excess pricing above what the actual price of delivering the fuel subsidy should be could be recovered. I do not know why we are not examining such practical measures to address the underlying scandal which is the potential loss of public funding, rather than just resorting to an electoral contest which risks bringing about political instability to the detriment of people in the North.

We do not know, and it is hard to call, what is the real reasoning behind the election. Is it purely a breakdown in personal relationships with the likes of Arlene Foster and, if so, can it be recovered? That would seem to be highly unlikely if, as Deputy Catherine Murphy has said, we go through a deeply contentious and divisive electoral campaign.

We should also be aware that this election will take place at a time when the Brexit negotiations will be at their height. As the Taoiseach has said, it will be a difficult, tense and combative negotiation process. Is the election instability or the possible non-return of the assembly a way of giving every party a certain freedom to address the Brexit issue as they see fit, rather than trying to work in co-operation on a difficult negotiation process?

After the election, if talks on a power-sharing executive fail, there is a real risk that the Secretary of State will be required to call another election. Some people might see the DUP being overturned by the UUP, or will the SDLP seek to do that to Sinn Féin? It is impossible to call but it is unlikely.

Every time there is a crisis in the North of Ireland in terms of implementing the Good Friday Agreement, our fear is that the response is to chip away at the constitutional provisions, thus creating a democratic deficit that has opened up in the nature of the political process as it evolved. We do not believe, as some parties seem to think, that the response should be a return to what the Good Friday Agreement provided for. We need to look forward, start improving and consider other evolutions or developments of the political process. For example, the creation of a constitutional convention in the North, along the lines of the one held here, on the future development of relationships on this island could well allow us to start thinking beyond the Good Friday Agreement and examine where we go next. It could consider how one could introduce a constitutional solution not just on an issue-specific basis, but by creating a mechanism whereby independent investigations could take place, so that we would not be stuck in the current rut.

Whatever the case, we in the Green Party are ready for the election. We will be running candidates in every constituency and will be seeking to return at least our two MLAs. I hope that within a smaller assembly they and any other colleagues could be far more effective.

We will work with all parties as we have always done. We are not sectarian and we do not believe in this political divide. We believe it is time for the North to move to a new and better politics where we are not dividing each other on the basis of old historic lines. We believe we provide a real alternative which connects the South of the island but also the east. We are very close to our colleagues in England, Wales and in the Scottish Green Party as well as in a wider European context.

It is important that all parties on the island, in particular those which argued against the Brexit process, are active, ready and prepared to take on the challenge we see arising today as Prime Minister May steers her country towards what looks like a hard Brexit and a deeply damaging process to all the people of this island and Great Britain. This is not the time for us to be fighting internally and wrangling over issues that could or should have been resolved by the political system had it not steered itself into a cul-de-sac. That is a democratic deficit that needs to be amended, which will best be done by looking forward and picking up where the Good Friday Agreement set us, going forward with new, innovative measures. Hopefully, some thinking like that may come out of the election. That may be one of the benefits of an electoral process. There should be positive, forward looking ideas around how the constitutional arrangements in the North can work best. It will be very difficult to do that at the same time as we are looking at how Brexit is going to work and affect all the people of the island. Nevertheless, it is what the Green Party will seek to do.

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