Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This year we celebrate 20 years of the Good Friday Agreement, 20 years of peace and progress and 20 years that have changed the relationships across our island and between Ireland and Britain. However, recent events demonstrate that we cannot be complacent or take the progress or the peace for granted. The Good Friday Agreement was an agreement in the first instance to protect citizens and accommodate change. Ireland is changing. A new Ireland is emerging and the North can no longer be viewed through the prism of orange and green. It is now a rainbow of identities and aspirations.

Sinn Féin stands for a new united inclusive and equal Ireland, an Ireland for all, whether British, Irish, both or neither. However, there are those who want to drag us back into conflict, those who want to maintain community division. They can be seen on the streets of Derry and on the streets of east Belfast. They cannot and will not prevail.

I know Derry. The actions of the antisocial criminal elements that have roved the streets of the maiden city do not represent Derry.

I know many unionists. The actions of the bonfire builders who decorate their pyres with sectarian graffiti do not represent the unionist community.

Sinn Féin elected representatives are on the ground and stand with communities at this time. In Derry we have marched in support and in solidarity with the community of the Fountain. Throughout the North, Sinn Féin representatives have stood with unionist and nationalist communities. We have challenged, and will continue to challenge, sectarianism wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head. We continue to support and work with the PSNI to challenge criminality and hate crime. There is an onus on all of us not only to condemn but to challenge those involved in these activities, to safeguard communities and hold those responsible to account. We must demonstrate that equal rights of citizens are fundamental and inalienable. We must demonstrate that grievances, whether real or perceived, can only be resolved through dialogue.

The Good Friday Agreement is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. It must be respected, embraced and implemented. A functioning executive operating for all in the community is the way forward. That is why we negotiated with the DUP to the point of agreement in February. What we agreed at that time was not perfect but it was progress. It was sufficient to allow for the re-establishment of the institutions. I note with regret that unfortunately the DUP walked away from this agreement and hence the opportunity for genuine power-sharing to be re-established was lost, for then but not forever.

The issues of contention remain. These are marriage equality, language rights and the right to a coroners inquest, rights that are recognised and honoured in Britain and this jurisdiction. The denial of these rights is a breach of the Good Friday Agreement and the full implementation of the Agreement is the solution to these issues. The institution to resolve these issues is also found in the Agreement. The BIIGC brings together the two governments to deal with non-devolved matters of mutual concern, including rights. In the absence of devolved institutions, this conference is the opportunity for the two governments to deal with all of the matters outstanding, within the framework of the Agreement.

I welcome that the intergovernmental conference will meet on 25 July but it must be more than a talking shop. It is the opportunity for the two governments to assert the primacy of the agreements, to make clear that the rights available here and across in our neighbouring island of Britain will be delivered in the North, that the Irish language Act agreed at St. Andrews will be delivered and that progress will be made on all-Ireland working and co-operation. The conference is the opportunity to vindicate the rights of Gaelgeoirí, of our LGBT+ community and those of the victims of the conflict. They are rights that are not a matter of negotiation but of implementation. This would provide a pathway back to the institutions.

However, there are those in unionism and the British Government who may use the conference to play for time and to continue to stall on these rights. It will be for the Government to set the pace and to ensure, as the Taoiseach has said, that the people of the North are never again left behind.

We are not naive. Even with the Executive and Assembly up and working, we still face considerable challenges on women's health, for example, and looming over all this is Brexit, which my colleague, Deputy David Cullinane Sinn Féin spokesperson on Brexit, will now deal with.

See this speech in context