Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this extremely important and timely debate. Reconciliation on these islands will be built through a shared desire to move forward to brighter days, but to do that, we must ensure all commitments are met, especially those contained in New Decade, New Approach.

Despite this important agreement being reached not that long ago, many of its core promises simply are not being met. The continuing boycott of the North-South Ministerial Council and near daily threats to collapse Stormont is political posturing that merely hardens divisions and delivers nothing for anyone on this island.

With looming elections in Northern Ireland, it is disappointing that outdated rhetoric is once again being deployed and that the familiar bogeymen in Dublin and Brussels are being targeted. This short-term political play acting moves us further away from the reconciliation and prosperity sought by the vast majority from every tradition on this entire island and indeed, these islands. It is important, therefore, that all of us in this House and beyond continue to push for the full implementation of New Decade, New Approach.

Within New Decade, New Approach, we consider the commitments to truth and justice as central to delivering true reconciliation. Often, in that context, when we speak of the Troubles and Northern Ireland’s history, we hear some people say that we simply need to move on and forward and leave the past behind. However, as we were reminded this weekend in Derry, so many families do not have the luxury of simply moving on.

That there was a bomb scare in Derry city centre today, almost 25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, is a clear illustration of how much work is still left to be done and that so many people have to be brought into that process. Too many families who lost loved ones cannot just move on, especially at a time when they are being deprived the possibility of justice from the British Government or information from former paramilitaries that can at least give them closure.

Last year, the Seanad passed an all-party, cross-community motion to oppose the British Government’s de factoamnesty plans. I hope that we can also come together in this Chamber and jointly declare that there should be no amnesties in respect of offences committed in Northern Ireland. Time is no substitute for justice. The responsibilities and duties of the British Government are clear and they simply must be met.

Equally, there remains so many families who have been deprived of the right to afford their loved ones a proper Christian burial. It is not too late for those that know to come forward and put those like the family of Columba McVeigh out of their misery and afford them their closure and justice. There can be no hierarchy when it comes to suffering in the Troubles. There is an equal opportunity to right the wrongs of the past but it is, crucially, an equal responsibility. The disappeared, which was one of the cruellest and shameful atrocities of the Troubles, could still be put right.

There are brighter days ahead for this island, North and South, but we need genuine commitment from all parties to get to that point and to work through the difficulties that will move us towards genuine reconciliation. I can never pretend to truly appreciate the pain experienced by those families and individuals directly impacted by the atrocities that scarred our land during a dark period in our shared history, but I can promise that their pain will not be ignored nor their right to justice denied. I hope all of us in this Chamber can agree on and attempt to deliver this.

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