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

I did not ask for it. Nobody can doubt the immense progress in Northern Ireland arising from the victory of democratic politics and the new beginning offered by the inclusive and brave agreement reached 20 years ago.

The problems that confront Northern Ireland and this island as a whole today are nowhere near those experienced at the height of the violence and sectarianism of the previous decades. We should acknowledge the tremendous steps that have been taken to try to overcome entrenched sectarianism and the spiral of conflict that it fed.

On 12 July we should note the importance of the day to much of the unionist community and the value they place on it. It is fitting that our Presidents have for some years made sure that they have used the office to show the respect owed to this distinctly Irish tradition and the extraordinary good faith shown by many of its leaders in helping that tradition to evolve. This was once a day on which Catholic communities lived in real fear and it defined aggressive sectarianism. This has overwhelmingly changed but, unfortunately, not completely. Recent days have shown again how a small minority can terrorise communities. Building dangerous bonfires in built-up areas, attacking workers, burning flags and political posters as well as abusive sloganeering have nothing to do with celebration of a culture; it is nothing less than sectarian thuggery. The apparent activity of the east Belfast UVF is a major concern, as is the activity of dissidents in Derry. The attempted murder of a police officer in Derry, the throwing of 20 petrol bombs and the attacks on the small Protestant community in the Fountain area of the city show a deliberate escalation of sectarian violence.

Fianna Fáil strongly welcomes and supports the joint statement signed by six Assembly parties yesterday condemning the violence of recent days and the call for full co-operation with the police. It showed that there is cross-community opposition to the tiny minority trying to destabilise Northern Ireland and undermine progress. I hope those parties, especially the largest two parties, understand the obvious fact that these concerning developments are being enabled by the ongoing political vacuum in Northern Ireland. Today marks 549 days since the agreed institutions for governing Northern Ireland in an inclusive way were collapsed. During this time there has been no voice for the people of Northern Ireland in their mounting health crisis, rising homelessness, tackling of sectarianism or, of course, in the debate on Brexit. Leaving a community without a voice at a time of great uncertainty and historic challenges is dangerous in any circumstance. It is potentially destructive in a community with Northern Ireland's history.

In two weeks' time the two governments will finally hold a British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. While the significance of the conference has occasionally been exaggerated, it remains the only route available to the governments to be true to the expressed will of the people in supporting the Good Friday Agreement. We welcome the holding of the conference but we are highly disappointed that neither the Prime Minister nor the Taoiseach will attend given the scale and importance of the issues at hand. It is a disgrace that it took so long for the conference to be called. This delay has simply confirmed that no matter how often the key players talk, they have so far failed to find a way of moving ahead in a co-ordinated or urgent manner.

The first priority at the moment should remain the restoration of the institutions. The current blockage is the exact mirror image of the difficulties over the welfare negotiations some years ago. This even goes as far as each of the parties claiming the other backed out of a deal and each party claiming that the other is 100% to blame for everything. The calling of the conference should not be a replacement for trying to return to meaningful negotiations, including the direct and active involvement of the leaders of government.

While the calling of the conference is welcome it is singularly disappointing how limited the agenda is. In particular, there appears to be, on the face of it, an entirely unacceptable attempt to keep Brexit-related issues off the agenda. The conference is entitled to discuss all non-devolved issues. This includes the overall operation of the devolution settlement, which is on the agenda. However, given the number of areas where the British Government has recently denied the role of devolved administrations, the list of areas that can and should be discussed is dramatically longer than the last time the conference met in 2007. The British Government should be confronted with the fact that it recently passed legislation and fought a UK Supreme Court case based on the principle that the devolved administrations did not control a vast range of policy areas. In fact, it has gone as far as to assert that the Sewel convention on the devolution of powers is voluntary and all powers are held by Westminster. The British Government cannot make this naked power grab and then claim these issues are outside of the competence of the conference.

This is, of course, crucial to the basic position of Northern Ireland with regard to the European Union. Under the UK European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 passed in London, all competencies currently held by the European Union will automatically be held by London until some later point when they may be devolved. The Government should also remember that the British Government accepted in its pleading in the Agnew High Court case that co-operation on European Union matters and the role of the European Union is assumed in the Good Friday Agreement. As such, Ireland should simply insist that practical matters relating to Brexit and Northern Ireland be included in the discussions as well as the requirement on the British Government to be open in sharing information.

Businesses and communities in Northern Ireland have been abandoned by a political class which has either opted out of institutions that might give them a voice on Brexit or is involved in trying to subvert the will of the majority which voted to remain.

We are calling on the Tánaiste to use this meeting to push for the publication of whatever material has been prepared in London and Belfast concerning the implications of different options for Northern Ireland and details of what contingency planning is under way.

While matters of education and health do fall within the remit of devolved authority, intentions about how to proceed with urgently needed action fall within the realm of the overall operation of the Agreement. Therefore, we believe that our Government should push for an unambiguous commitment for the British Government to publish a statement of its plans and budgets for schools and hospitals. Northern Ireland's schools and hospitals are being squeezed relentlessly and the vital services they provide for communities across the North are being undermined. This is becoming a critical issue for many of the people involved on the front-line of services and those in receipt of vital public services. We know from various legal cases that the capacity of administrators to take decisions and so on is severely curtailed and the issue of governance is severely undermined by the current lack of the institutions in operation.

Some clarity is urgently required; it is needed now. I hope the BIIGC can bring some clarity to that situation. The holding of the IGC is unfortunately necessary because of a lack of political leadership and bravery in more than one party. It is unlikely to mark a major breakthrough but hopefully it will lead to some progress in terms of restoring the institutions. After 549 days in which there has been a sense of drift and a failure to turn contact into action, a return of a sense of hope that some progress is possible would be a major achievement indeed.

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