Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the issue of Northern Ireland and the various issues that impact on Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland as a whole. The normal process available to us to do that is through Taoiseach's Questions, and we have repeatedly said that it is wholly inadequate. The notion that we occasionally have 15 minutes to make statements is not really good enough. We need a better format for dealing with these issues, and the Taoiseach has acknowledged this. Maybe it is because it is so seldom that the contributions of Members are from a party political perspective, as we have heard already tonight. That prevails instead of an openness to hearing other people's views and a genuine respect for the fact that we actually have different perspectives, because we have different traditions - very deep traditions going back to the foundation of the State in the case of my party. We all have valid things to say and we should respect each other where these matters are concerned.

This time last year, there were 37,611 people on the housing waiting list in Northern Ireland. Some 23,694 were deemed to be in housing stress. Some 11,889 people were deemed to be homeless. Despite our manifest housing crisis in the Republic, there were more homeless deaths in Belfast than in Dublin. Yet Northern Ireland is being denied a government to tackle these fundamental social problems.

As of June, there were more than 250,000 people in Northern Ireland waiting for an appointment to see a consultant. Of that 250,000, 65,000 had been waiting for more than a year. There are 110,000 people awaiting a diagnostic test in Northern Ireland. Some 72,500 people are waiting for inpatient or day care. Yet for a full year, the people of Northern Ireland have been denied a government. In this House we know that solving these really difficult social problems in housing, health and elsewhere is not easy. However, solving them without a government is immeasurably more difficult.

The economy suffers too. An EY economic eye report in December put growth in Northern Ireland at less than a third of the growth rate in the Republic of Ireland. That means jobs, living standards and the future of young people there, whether nationalist or unionist, are falling further behind with every month that goes by. That is before we address the lunacy of Brexit. Yet that hardly merits a thought. It certainly has not merited a government.

To analyse the blame game of who is responsible for the failure to establish the Northern Ireland Executive is effectively to be joined to it. We have heard echoes of that already tonight. Pointing out the contradictions in the positions of either side leaves one open to the charge of being party to one side or to the other. One side is pursuing a Brexit deal in the House of Commons, for which it has no mandate form the people of Northern Ireland. It is belligerent to the point that it is supporting a Brexit deal designed by England, anathema to the regions, which British Government studies suggest will hit Northern Ireland hardest. That side is terrified to concede advances on any issue, because to do so is automatically viewed by hardliners as a political defeat.

The other party, as is its wont, eschews its responsibility to ensure that Northern Ireland's voice is heard, protests the Border, reminds others of their duty, but does not show up where it can make a difference. Too happy with a European backstop position that annoys the British and the unionists, it is less focused on the damage that an east-west border will do to the economic well-being of the people of the island of Ireland as a whole. In fact, an east-west border will be much more economically damaging than the very unwelcome North-South Border. It is afraid to take its seats in Westminster to vote on an issue of existential importance to the island of Ireland and to the people of Ireland.

It seems clear that we have reached a point where both sides cannot be satisfied with what satisfies others almost by definition. I listened to the Tánaiste's speech tonight, and he said, as instanced by Deputy Cullinane, that the Government welcomes Prime Minister May's "steadfast commitment" to the agreement reached last December. Steadfast commitment?

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