David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In my party's view, the Government and the political parties in the Dáil need to get to grips with the reality that it is no longer tenable to speak rhetorically about Irish unity. The Taoiseach is right when he speaks about the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. It provided a democratic and peaceful means of achieving Irish unity. If we want Irish unity, however, we must put bones on exactly how that is going to be brought about. Sinn Féin put forward a practical proposal to have an all-party committee in the House to examine how that could be done. We are aware that recent population changes in the North have underpinned the need for such an approach. We also know that the census in the North, which for the first time asked about identity, revealed that those who view themselves as British are now a minority at 48%. Unionists have, for the first time, lost their majority in the Assembly. In the same census, those who define themselves as Irish were at 45%. While I wish to see a united Ireland, I also wish to see one in which those who are British and those who have a different identity are comfortable and where their rights are fully protected. I have always maintained, as does my party, that unionists in a united Ireland can never be treated like nationalists have been treated in a partitioned Ireland. We want a new republic and we want a different type of Ireland, North and South. We do not want to peg North and South together to simply have a united Ireland but not a united people. That is the type of Ireland I want to build. It makes practical sense to have a committee in this House that would look at how we can practically work towards Irish unity.

I was not surprised that the leader of Fianna Fáil rejected such an offer, given that he is the most pro-unionist leader of his party, certainly in my lifetime and possibly for longer than that. I expected, however, that the new Taoiseach would see the reality of what is before him; that this is a realistic practical proposal by Sinn Féin. The Taoiseach asks for proposals all the time, and when we give them to the Taoiseach, he rejects them. I am asking him to reconsider it because it is in the spirit of wanting to work towards Irish unity in a practical way.

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