Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

By any objective measure we are at a major crisis point in respect of Northern Ireland. If we are to overcome this, our first challenge is to be honest in recognising the scale and origin of the problem. In statements earlier today and last week I dealt with the Brexit issue in greater depth than is possible in this session. I would like to concentrate instead on the fundamental ongoing issues we face.

Nearly 20 years after the people of this island voted in three referendums for an agreed set of constitutional principles, institutions and a path to reconciliation we are at a moment of deadlock and disillusionment. Where once there was rising hope that different sides could work together, today we find a rising detachment and cynicism. The agreed institutions are suspended. The two increasingly dominant parties in Northern Ireland continue to focus on their own rather than shared interests. Public faith in politics is at a new low where civil servants and Ministers from English constituencies impose cuts across already strained public services. The anti-Brexit majority has been left voiceless as this destructive policy moves forward. Most damaging of all, the central engine behind past progress, which was the close and active collaboration of the Governments in Dublin and London has effectively broken down. When even senior Ministers in the two Administrations are trading jibes in the media something is deeply wrong.

This is not a situation which developed overnight. It is the inevitable outcome of years of complacency and drift. It has been a slow motion car crash lasting years. Fianna Fáil takes no comfort in the fact that it has been warning since late 2011 that a crisis was likely. The Governments had moved to an explicit policy of leaving the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, and Sinn Féin to sort matters out between themselves. Initially their focus was on squeezing parties they saw as communal rivals and asserting their dominance. In area after area their priority was to maximise their party control rather than to deliver good government. That is why there were so many scandals about funding channelled to front groups and about sectarian appointments by Ministers. Many key elements of the 1998 settlement were allowed to be marginalised and the dynamism of various initiatives was undermined. Too often the emphasis was on holding meetings rather than ensuring that they achieved anything. For example, it is six years since we were first told that proposals for developing North-South institutions were on the way yet nothing has appeared. The British-Irish Council meets regularly but the British Prime Minister no longer sees it as important enough to merit attendance.

In this House over the past six years we have paid nowhere near enough attention to Northern Ireland. On those occasions when we did hold debates there was a consistent pattern. First, the Government would state how well everything was going, then we would challenge this, warn against potential breakdown and point to clear evidence of inaction on key issues. This in turn was followed by Sinn Féin agreeing with the Government that everything was going fine in Stormont and aggressively dismissing the idea that it had any case to answer on any issue. The record is full of examples of Deputy Adams brushing off the significance of events and statements which deepened divisions. Separately, there were regular statements from the First Minister and deputy First Minister about how well they were working together. On one occasion Peter Robinson and the late Martin McGuinness attended a dinner in Dublin at which they said relations had never been better and problems were simply the imagination of people who should know better. This complacency was followed last year by a new dynamic where the two parties became more aggressive. This culminated in the decision of Sinn Féin's leadership to instruct its Executive members to withdraw and cause the second election in a year.

The deadlock we have seen since that election is causing sustained damage, not least to public faith in politics. No one can be complacent about the future in Northern Ireland. It is impossible to miss the fact that the foundations for conflict and division, albeit at a much lower level than in the past, remain in place. Sectarianism remains entrenched in important parts of the community. Deputy Adams can, as he did, laugh off saying about unionists that he would "break these bastards" as a shared basis of democratic respect is not fully established.

Deep poverty and disillusionment remain in marginalised communities which have in the past been exploited by violent groups. The ideology of violence is still promoted, even by groups which have been persuaded to join democratic politics. The Provisional movement continues to glorify an illegitimate struggle rejected by the majority of nationalists in all parts of this island. At the recent Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis, the loudest cheers were for people who murdered and maimed in the face of the overwhelming and constantly renewed opposition of the Irish people. Equally, in some loyalist areas paramilitarism continues to be admired and honoured. Simply because the open violence has largely gone does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that we have fulfilled the potential of what Seamus Mallon, a genuine Irish republican hero, who faced down the sinister extremes terrorising his community, described as not a finality but a new dispensation to work for the interests of all.

It is worth comparing the very different experience of devolved government in Scotland with that in Northern Ireland. Both achieved devolution within a year of each other and with a similar level of support in referendums. Comparable polling in 2001 and 2002 showed similar levels of trust in the devolved administrations' commitment to work in the best interests of the people. However, in recent years there has been a stark divergence. In Northern Ireland less than one third trust that the people they elect are working in their interests. In contrast, nearly two thirds in Scotland show this trust. We do not just need to find a way of getting through this crisis, we need a determined effort to address the recurring problems which have undermined the working of the institutions established by the Good Friday Agreement and the delivery of the good government which the people of Northern Ireland so desperately seek.

One of our most important challenges is to understand how the governments have moved away from basic principles and actions which were central to every piece of progress achieved in the past. One of the most disturbing elements of last week's events was the repeated insistence, not just by the DUP but by the British Government, that Northern Ireland cannot be treated as a separate case from other parts of the United Kingdom. This is the reversal of 43 years of policy. In Sunningdale, the Anglo-Irish Agreement and, most importantly, in the Good Friday Agreement the British Government explicitly accepted that Northern Ireland is distinct from the rest of the United Kingdom. For 43 years it has conceded the principle that the Irish Government should be consulted on matters concerning Northern Ireland. In the various agreements structures requiring such consultation were created. It is this recognition of Northern Ireland's distinct position that has been the very core of overcoming historic problems. Each of the four elements of the United Kingdom has a distinct constitutional status. Each has separate rules on various matters including important taxation matters. For example, Northern Ireland has the right to vary corporation tax. The idea that for the United Kingdom's economy to function all parts must be equal in all things is a radical departure from 20 years of devolution and stated policy in respect of Scotland and Northern Ireland in particular.

In fact, the new policy is more extreme than that of Margaret Thatcher who abandoned the phrase "as British as Finchley" in government and signed an agreement which gave Irish officials a formal role in Northern Ireland. Equally, she developed failed devolution initiatives.

I am glad the Taoiseach has backed away from the wrong and self-serving statement that he is somehow departing from the practice of previous Governments by refusing to ignore the position of people in Northern Ireland. He should now return to the policy of many of his predecessors and seek to build active and meaningful co-operation with politicians in Northern Ireland and Britain. No matter what other crisis was at hand, taoisigh like Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen ensured they had a strong and productive set of relationships in Belfast and London. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have spoken about how their strongest bilateral relationships were with Dublin. The relationship between Albert Reynolds and John Major showed that breakthroughs could be achieved with London even while a weak Tory government was in office. The absence of this type of dynamic and of permanent, informal and formal engagement across the community in Northern Ireland has led to a situation where the Governments are speaking at each other through the media and our Government is engaged in public sniping with a major party. It has also led to a situation where statements from Dublin can easily be misrepresented, including the manifestly absurd idea that Sinn Féin, our most anti-European Union party, is somehow driving Brexit policy.

An inclusive government for Northern Ireland remains its best hope of permanently overcoming entrenched problems. It is the only way to develop and implement policies to address the unique problems faced by communities in all parts of Northern Ireland. Of the actions we need, the first and most important is an end to the blockade on the Assembly and Executive to allow the Brexit emergency to be addressed. The majority of people in Northern Ireland today have no voice in the running of their affairs or in addressing the overwhelming danger posed by Brexit. Quite rightly, Deputy Adams described Brexit as the greatest challenge of this generation. Nevertheless, he insists that nothing will be done on Brexit in the North until other matters are dealt with first. Those other matters are very important even though they were largely ignored as a reason for collapsing the institutions in the first place. They must be addressed and the time for that cannot be limitless. Nothing, however, is as pressing and potentially irreversible as the likely damage of the Brexit mess.

It is a sad reality that the only Northern Irish voice working to block the worst parts of Tory policy is the independent unionist MP from North Down, Sylvia Hermon. Her efforts to have respect for the Good Friday Agreement recognised in Brexit legislation demonstrate that she is a fearless fighter and have earned her far more respect than for those who are blocking the pro-remain majority in the Assembly from being able to assemble and speak. It is only when the institutions are working that the complex arrangements required for Northern Ireland post Brexit can realistically be addressed. In fact, it is only then that an impact study can be carried out. We also need a renewed commitment by the Irish and British Governments to the leadership required to restore the institutions and make them work. The hands-off approach has failed disastrously and we must return to a situation where, to borrow a phrase, the Irish Government refuses to leave Northern Ireland behind in its list of daily priorities. In developing a Brexit response, we must work to ensure that a plan is put in place that prevents the erection of economic and social barriers on this island, whatever happens on the overall UK-EU deal.

We also need a new long-term agenda to tackle poverty and disadvantage in Northern Ireland and in the Border region as a whole. Currently, there is no credible development model for Northern Ireland. There is only a constant effort to mitigate the worst impact of the withdrawal of funding from London. Growth and prosperity and the only ways to remove the foundations of division and conflict. It is long past time we had a major effort to find a new economic approach in Northern Ireland. Part of that involves something akin to a Marshall plan to end disadvantage in key communities in Northern Ireland. That did not happen under recent Executives but it needs to happen and both Governments should come together to ensure that it does. After two decades of undoubted progress in Northern Ireland, this moment of crisis cannot be dismissed as a passing problem. It is the result of failures over a number of years and of a strategy which is, at best, complacent.

I noted the Minister's remarks tonight on the legacy dimension of the current talks and the Stormont House Agreement. Here, again, is an issue which has dragged on and on. In fact, I have always been cynical about the commitment of some of the parties to sign up genuinely to the legacy agenda and to get answers for many families and communities on the horrible violence and atrocities meted out to them. Every party and person of goodwill must acknowledge the crisis and act. They must act to restore the institutions, develop a plan to address the damage of Brexit, renew the effort to overcome sectarianism and demand our Governments return to close and active co-operation.

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