Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I acknowledge my colleague on the Business Committee, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, who has been calling for this debate on behalf of Sinn Féin for the past couple of weeks. It was nice to see it on the clár today. It is important that we have this opportunity to discuss the New Decade, New Approach agreement, which is a very important agreement.

I am conscious that this is the first time I have spoken on Northern Ireland issues in this Dáil. I hope it will not be the last. Before my time in the Dáil, I was struck by the fact that when people spoke in the Chamber about the institutions of the North, they could sometimes sound patronising or detached. That is something I am very conscious of and I hope I will not come across like that. It is great to see the assembly back after three years. We hope this agreement will ensure that we never again see another three-year period without the assembly being in operation. We also look forward to seeing the Executive back up and running. An issue that has been lost over the past year is that it is not just about getting the institutions back up and running for the sake of it. Their operation is important for the economy, society, education, climate change and many other issues in Northern Ireland. It is a deep document and one that contains many good aspirations.

I assume the Minister for Foreign Affairs will be responding at the end of the debate. I would like to hear from him regarding one of the legal obligations on the Northern Ireland Executive, namely, the requirement to have an anti-poverty strategy. We do not talk enough about poverty in this Chamber and on this island. Poverty is not unique to Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, there is poverty in every county on this island. An anti-poverty strategy in the North should be matched by an anti-poverty strategy in the South. In fact, there should be a strategy for the elimination of all poverty. I do not wish to go off on too much of a tangent but I will point out that the programme for Government contains 13 references to poverty, but nearly all of them are parsed in terms of fuel poverty or some other type of poverty. The entirety of poverty, including economic poverty and social exclusion, is something about which we need to talk more. I would like to hear what the Government is doing to assist the Executive in tackling poverty, specifically in respect of the anti-poverty strategy that is a legal obligation on the Executive to produce as part of this agreement.

Politics is never static, not least in the North.

Over the past year, the global shock wave of Covid and the regional shock wave of Brexit have been felt particularly harshly in the North. This is very difficult and one has to be wary when taking a snapshot regarding Covid because circumstances can change so quickly. There were points during the year when we felt we were doing well regarding Covid but there is now a sense that we are not. We can say, however, that in 2020 Northern Ireland was badly let down by Westminster regarding the Covid response. The strategies were non-existent and the numbers of hospitalisations and deaths were far too high for far too long. This is another example of the lack of respect accorded to Northern Ireland by Westminster and, in particular, by the current Tory Government.

With regard to Brexit, there has also been a lack of respect. The way in which Northern Ireland has been kicked about like a political football by the Tory Government has been absolutely shameful. It is very disappointing to see the DUP and some of the other unionist parties now backing legal action against the Northern Ireland protocol and making its dismantling their priority, be it in Westminster, the Executive, Brussels or the courts. That is damaging and wounding. Ultimately, it will not do the parties involved any good because it will damage many households across all communities in Northern Ireland and here. Given that we must work together to ensure that we are tackling the problems in every community, North and South, including poverty and economic disadvantage, and allowing people to put food on the table and a roof over their heads, it is exceedingly disappointing to see the relevant parties going down the road they are on.

The elevation of Lord Frost to the British Cabinet to deal with the EU affairs has had a somewhat worrying, if not chilling, effect on us all. I refer here to how he is going to approach the protocol, Brexit and the treatment of the document over the next couple of years.

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