Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We did not seek this legislation but we have to enact it. Like other speakers I congratulate all the Members of this House who made a solid contribution to the united stance the Irish Government took on this issue. We did not waver once or change tack. We stuck to the issue; there was no alternative. Once alternatives are created one begins to lose ground, and once that ground is lost, more concessions are inevitable, until one is in a place one does not want to be. I congratulate the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Ministers of State and the officials involved, as well as the leaders and members of the opposition parties.

This is a sad event, which cannot improve the situation that prevailed heretofore. Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to a failure of politics. Politics has not failed. People get impatient with it, as they get impatient with democracy. This is not the first time this has happened. For 30 years we heard that politics had failed in Northern Ireland. It failed because it had been pushed to one side and different methods were introduced that were not beneficial to the country, democracy or peace. The same happens elsewhere in the world. This is not the first time we have seen swings to the hard right or the hard left. Both sides have come together in common cause, and it did not benefit the world at large either. Whenever that happens, there is always a cause. In the past it has happened as a result of economic unrest, when people wish to point the finger of blame at someone. The most recent occasion on which that happened was the Second World War. Free-thinking, decent, honest and constructive people turned around and pointed the finger of blame at their neighbours, blamed them for what was happening and decided to punish them. It was done in such a dramatic way that the world will never forget it. We should always remember that 70 million people were annihilated as a result of those antics. When it was all over, from the ashes the European leaders of the time vowed that it would never happen again, and set about creating the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community, and the European Union. Those leaders did well; to do so in that environment at that particular time took a great deal of hope and perseverance and required a great deal of confidence in the future. Those leaders are well known, and we remember them. They put in place the foundations for modern Europe, and did it extremely well.

New people have come along and said that they disagree with how things are. They have decided they want to go back to the old days. I asked recently what old days they are talking about. I presume they are referring to the first half of the 20th century, which was marked by those infamous wars. Is that something we should aspire to return to? The common cause that people reached at that time was to kill one another. I do not think we should go there, I do not think we will and I sincerely hope we do not.

Nigel Farage has been a major architect of this debate since the very beginning. He sneaked in after the Battle of Agincourt, and I believe he changed sides. He has been working steadily since. Britain, Europe and Ireland have inherited something from that man that is not in any way constructive or useful. We certainly cannot build the future of Europe on it, or the future of Ireland.

Like the Tánaiste I am strongly of the opinion that now is not the time to have a debate about a united Ireland. Deputy Boyd Barrett touched on this briefly. We cannot coerce people to unite. An island cannot be coerced into uniting.

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