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

I thank the Minister for his positive response. I welcome the fact that he intends to hold commemorations and events on our island, in Washington and elsewhere. We should also press for a significant input from the European Union to mark the achievement. The EU is not explicitly mentioned in the Good Friday Agreement but it also underpins the agreement.

The chair of the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement, the former US Senator George Mitchell, acknowledged the importance of the EU recently. He said the agreement would not have been possible without the European Union, as our joint membership of the Union and the many bilateral meetings held between British and Irish Ministers and officials every week, often on a daily basis, played a vital role in thawing and improving relationships between both islands. Those improved relationships led to the peace process and the finalisation of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Minister quite rightly referred to the significant date of 22 May 1998 when, thankfully, for the first time on the island since 1918, those of us who had the opportunity to do so cast a vote. We were a privileged generation, in that we were the first since 1918 who voted with the people of Northern Ireland on the same question. The Minister will recall that in our State, 94.39% of the people voted "Yes" and in Northern Ireland, 71.12% of the people voted "Yes", despite the major unionist party at that time not agreeing to what had been achieved. There was very little support in campaigning terms from Sinn Féin for the referendum. It was a remarkable achievement.

I sincerely hope that the events which will be held will not involve the usual invitation list. We want to get people involved from society in general in commemorating these events and marking what we achieved and where we came from. The Minister or his Department might consider involving schools, in particular second and third level institutions, in order to make that generation aware of the progress which has been made and the need to maximise the potential of the agreement from now on.

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