Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I start by quoting the great Irish revolutionary, James Connolly. There are many things one could quote from him, but this particular quote really describes what partition has done to this country. He described partition as "the greatest asset in the hands of reaction in Ireland and a never failing decoy to lure workers into the bogs of religious hatred and social stagnation". The partition of Ireland was used as a counter-revolutionary measure to ensure that sectarianism was maintained on both sides of the Border and "a carnival of reaction" was created by enshrining the Catholic polity in the South, which continues to haunt us in the form of the Tuam babies scandal and so on, and the Protestant state in the North which ensured the oppression of the Catholic minority for decades. While we now see that beginning to change, there has been a carnival of reaction and a heavy price has been paid for the partition of Ireland.

We have talked recently about the peace process and the legacy of Martin McGuinness, which is very appropriate, but I think back often to the massive demonstrations across Northern Ireland, called for in the main by the ICTU, to demand peace and an end to the war by both sides. That led to the peace process itself. However, while the peace is great, the process is extremely flawed and has permitted the continued enshrining of sectarianism in the whole structure and political process in Northern Ireland. If one is elected to the Stormont Assembly, one declares oneself as "nationalist", "unionist" or "other". Where else and in what other parliament would one do that, except perhaps one that oversaw apartheid as in South Africa? That situation describes the process we are stuck with in the North which is all about looking after one's own community and side. That sectarianism is maintained by the structures in Stormont itself. We can only challenge that sectarianism and reaction by challenging the structures which maintain them. It is a structure which argues that we need to implement neoliberal measures like reducing the corporation tax rate, getting rid of thousands of public sector jobs and maintaining a low-pay economy to allow the North to compete with the Republic of Ireland. The lure of neoliberalism provides a cover to the idea that partition actually works and it must be resisted.

I was in Derry over a recent weekend to campaign for the election of Eamonn McCann and I was taken aback by the shocking levels of deprivation and poverty in some of the large estates on the outskirts of the city. I had not seen anything like it in a long time. The closest I have seen to it was 20 years ago when I first moved to Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard, which is still neglected but was even more so at that stage. It looked like something from the wild west. That is what the outskirts of Derry reminded me of a couple of weeks ago. What is happening in the North is a modern version of "Labour must wait" whereby economic and social issues are parked in order to talk about equality and parity of esteem between nationalists and unionists. It is not for me to tell Sinn Féin what to do or to advise anybody in the North, but while there has to be a focus on the issue of corruption and, as is being done, the Irish language and equality, the economic issues cannot be ignored. We should not be rushing to reduce corporation tax, shed public sector jobs and cut education and health services to maintain a competitive level playing field with the South of Ireland.

That throws up for us the challenge of Brexit and it will be interesting to see how we handle it. Not one party in these islands is for a hard Border. Not a single party North or South supports a hard Border. That gives us a wonderful opportunity to throw it back to the Tories in Britain who would use a hard Border for their own racist ends to control what they see as a flood of immigration and the European Union which would use a hard Border as a way to punish any state that dares to disagree with its policies and to step outside it. Here, we have an opportunity for both parliamentary bodies, and I say this to the Minister as much as to those who have representation in Stormont, to declare that we will not have anything to do with a hard Border and that none of our State agencies will co-operate with its implementation. While that would be a very radical step for the Government, whatever about the Executive in Stormont, there needs to be a declaration by parliamentarians on both sides of the Border that they will not co-operate with the implementation of a hard Border and that they are asserting a democratic right on the part of themselves and the people of the country, North and South, who oppose a hard Border. We are not going to go along with the agenda of the EU or of Theresa May. That will mean not being passive in the Dáil while allowing the EU to ride roughshod over us because we are a member state. We need to stand up to the EU and to the Tories in the North. That will ultimately mean relying on the people North and South and mobilising them to take action against the implementation of a hard Border.

We must also mobilise workers, as is happening outside the Dáil today with bus workers, against cuts to their pay, a low-pay economy, the shedding of jobs and an agenda which favours low corporation tax as a neoliberal mechanism to create a competitive economy. We need to resist all of those attempts to drive us into the dirt. That will undermine the carnival of reaction to which Connolly referred and it will undermine the idea that there are two sectarian states, one run by the Catholic Church in the South and the other by Protestant bigotry in the North. It will undermine the idea that workers are divided and must remain divided. It will bring us together in unity and in action but it requires that parliamentarians do not allow themselves to be dictated to by either the Tories or the European Union.

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