Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to open the statements on Northern Ireland on behalf of the Government. It is very important that the House has this regular opportunity to discuss Northern Ireland matters. I look forward to hearing views on all sides, which will certainly inform the Government's approach. There have been a number of significant developments since our last discussion in this format in December. I first want to address briefly developments in the Brexit negotiations, which are of such fundamental importance for the peace process, founded on the Good Friday Agreement. The draft withdrawal agreement was published by the European Commission last week. The protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is an integral part of the draft withdrawal agreement, translates into legally binding terms the firm commitments made in December, including the guarantee of avoiding a hard border, protecting the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts and maintaining the common travel area.

On the Border issue, the Government has always been clear that our first preference is to avoid a hard border through a future relationship agreement between the EU and the UK. We share this view with the British Government. We have also made clear our commitment to exploring specific solutions to be proposed by the UK, if or when these are tabled. At the same time, and should it prove necessary, there is now the required legal provision to implement the backstop of maintaining full alignment in Northern Ireland with those rules of the Single Market and customs union necessary to protect North-South co-operation and to avoid a hard border.

The Government welcomes Prime Minister May's reiteration in her speech last Friday of the UK's steadfast commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and the agreement reached last December, including on avoiding a hard border. These commitments now need to be translated into concrete proposals. We look forward to the UK setting out its proposals in more detail across the negotiating table in Brussels. In this context, the Government will continue to advocate to the British Government, as our partner in the peace process and our closest neighbour and friend, that it pursue a future relationship that maintains the near-invisible Border we enjoy today.

That is by far the most effective and least disruptive way of maintaining the open Border, which brings such benefits for people, businesses and communities, North and South.

I met with Michel Barnier in Brussels last week and participated, with him, in the General Affairs Council the next day, where we reviewed progress on the Article 50 negotiations overall. Michel Barnier and his team are at one with the Government as we work together to protect the Good Friday Agreement and the broader gains of the peace process. I want to express again the Government’s continued appreciation for the work of Michel Barnier and his task force and the professionalism and good judgment they are bringing to the role they have taken on. The strong and unstinting solidarity from other EU member states was also affirmed at the General Affairs Council again last week. This support is vital and is deeply appreciated by the Government. Ireland is now considering the draft withdrawal agreement with our EU partners, in advance of the task force’s negotiations with the UK on the proposed text.

As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, the Government has worked intensively over many months, with the British Government, to facilitate talks between the political parties on the formation of a new executive in Northern Ireland. The devolved, power-sharing institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are the only way forward for Northern Ireland, and are urgently required now. I have been engaged in the discussions at Stormont over the last nine months, working with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and engaging with the negotiating teams of political parties, in particular the two largest parties in recent months, to seek a way forward. The developments at Stormont three weeks ago today, with one party asserting that the negotiations could not reach a successful outcome, are obviously of very serious concern. The Government is now working with the British Government to decide on the best way forward.

The Irish and British Governments, as co-guarantors of the Agreement, have a shared responsibility to make every effort to seek a route that will get the devolved institutions operating again as soon as possible. We believe that significant progress was made in the discussions between Sinn Féin and the DUP in recent weeks at Stormont, as they sought to address the main outstanding issues. This included progress on legislating for the Irish language in Northern Ireland and also to demonstrate and promote a culture of respect more broadly, including for Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture. We understand there was also productive engagement between the parties on enhancing the sustainability of a new executive.

There was also very important progress through the discussions both this year and last year at Stormont on dealing with legacy issues, which are very emotive and important for so many people in Northern Ireland. In that regard, a definitive move forward is urgently required with regard to a public consultation process on establishment of the Stormont House legacy bodies, and on adequate support for legacy inquests in terms of financial contribution. The Government remains determined to see that there is progress in the period ahead on these and other outstanding legacy issues, including the three all-party motions adopted by this House on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

I want to acknowledge also that the smaller Northern Ireland political parties, which are also entitled to participate in the executive, contributed in important ways to the process in recent months, advocating for workable compromises, and underlining the imperative of getting a functioning executive in place has been helpful, albeit extraordinarily frustrating for the parties concerned. There was very significant commitment to a positive engagement from the SDLP, UUP and Alliance which will remain essential as both Governments seek a way forward.

The enhanced engagement that finally gained momentum at Stormont in January and February cannot simply be cast aside despite the significant setback of three weeks ago. People in Northern Ireland are entitled to expect that every effort will be made to secure the operation of the devolved institutions that they mandated in the last assembly election and that are at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement. I am in very regular contact with the Secretary of State, Karen Bradley, and we are fully in agreement that the two Governments will continue to seek ways to reset and restart the engagement between the parties. That objective will remain at the core of the Government’s approach in any future scenario.

The Government’s firm position is that the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements must be implemented and operated in full. The Taoiseach has been clear in his discussions with Prime Minister May - as I have in my engagement with the Secretary of State - that the Government does not want to see the introduction of direct rule in Northern Ireland. As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the British and Irish Governments have an obligation to uphold and protect the letter and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, and we are also considering how best to do so in the current situation which is not straightforward.

It is very striking that at this moment, where there is a shortfall in political engagement at Stormont, that civic society has come to the fore to speak up for the interests of people living and working and co-operating together in Northern Ireland. There have been important contributions in recent weeks from civic representatives of nationalism, North and South, and also from civic unionism this week. The Taoiseach and I were glad to meet with representatives of the nationalist group in Dublin last week. The meeting itself went on for twice as long as it was scheduled, if I recall correctly we met for nearly three hours.

We also very much want to engage with the civic unionist group which has formed recently, as we do regularly with other unionist representatives in politics, business and at community level. There are different perspectives of course, but what I hear from people at the community level and from civil society - whether nationalist, unionist or neither - is a vision for a Northern Ireland that works on the basis of mutual respect, parity of esteem and partnership, the core principles of the Good Friday Agreement of 20 years ago. It is incumbent on politics and politicians to live up to that, in this House and north of the Border.

As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, the Government will continue to do everything possible to see that the power-sharing institutions of the agreement can be established as quickly as possible - and that they operate effectively on the basis of those core principles, in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland.

In just over a month, we will mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. A few weeks after that, on 22 May, we will mark 20 years since the agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people in referendums, North and South. These are anniversaries worth celebrating despite the current political challenges in Northern Ireland. Indeed, in some ways, the current impasse makes celebrating the principles of the Good Friday Agreement all the more important. These were transformational moments in the shared history of this island, and indeed these neighbouring islands of Ireland and Britain. Our prospects were profoundly changed for the better, both over the last 20 years and into the future. I think that certain glib and politicised suggestions from some quarters outside this House about the Good Friday Agreement have been definitively and resoundingly answered in recent weeks. In that regard, we wholeheartedly welcome the clear messages of support for the agreement from the British Government and the many friends and supporters of the peace process in Westminster and elsewhere in British political and civic life.

The Government is contributing to and supporting a programme of events to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the agreement in Belfast, Dublin, London, Washington and elsewhere in the weeks ahead. I was very glad to have the opportunity two weeks ago to address one of the first such events, organised in New York by Co-operation Ireland, with Senator George Mitchell and so many other friends of Ireland and supporters of the peace process from the US. It is extraordinary how powerful that support remains on the other side of the Atlantic, and the level of detail that they want in order to understand what is preventing the re-establishment of devolved government in Northern Ireland.

We are co-guarantors of this agreement. The Government holds fast to the evidence and the certainty that the agreement represented a new beginning for peace and reconciliation, which must be protected and deepened.

I know this view is shared across the House and thank Members for their support for what we are trying to do. The Government will continue, as it has always done, to do all that it can to ensure the verdict of the people in 1998 which was a resounding call for peace and reconciliation can be represented and realised through the institutions and full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in letter and spirit. I look forward to hearing colleagues’ views and having an opportunity to respond at the end of the debate.

See this speech in context