Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are here to discuss Northern Ireland and the rapidly evolving situation in relation to the Northern Ireland protocol, legacy issues and the shared responsibility that we hold with the UK regarding the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. They are all very live and important issues that are deserving of our time in this House. It is important that as we talk about the issues facing Northern Ireland, we ensure that we place the people living there front and centre. The North of Ireland has experienced so much pain. It is still reeling from a bloody conflict arising out of the partition of this island and the inequality and division that followed and are maintained today.

While the Troubles continue to dominate the narrative and paint a very dark picture of Northern Irish life, they are not all that defines the North of Ireland. While we reflect today on the peace process, the Good Friday Agreement and its institutions as well as the ongoing problems with the protocol, the fallout from Brexit and the challenges now faced regarding power-sharing arrangements, we must move away from considering the North of Ireland as a political state alone, as a problem to be solved. It is vital to understand and remember that the North is much more than a multitude of complex legal arrangements. It is a beautiful place, rich in history and culture, with one of the most stunning coastlines you will ever see anywhere in the world. It is a place dotted with picturesque towns and villages, rolling countryside, beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes and some incredible, buzzing cities, all offering great food, great experiences and extraordinary people. It has heart and passion; it is more than complex political arrangements.

We acknowledge that Northern Ireland is a post-conflict society. We recognise that all traditions and communities have suffered. Intergenerational and unresolved trauma have been allowed to become embedded and to harden. The North of Ireland remains a place that is divided by religious and national identity. In today’s Northern Ireland, we have many more communities than we had in the past, including young people who have never experienced the Troubles in their lifetimes, as well as a thriving civil society. They, too, deserve a place at the table that is deciding their shared future.

Peace, as we all know, was hard-won and finally came to pass in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement. Despite this, the North of Ireland’s economy and the Border counties that surround it have not been able to adapt and develop at the same rate and in the same way as other states in the EU, including here in the Republic. They have, by any measure, had extraordinary barriers put in their way. Many of these remain, while new issues continue to create even more difficulty. The North of Ireland remains one of the poorest economic regions of the UK or Ireland. It has always experienced persistently higher levels of unemployment, low levels of economic investment, lower wages and precarious jobs. Just before the global pandemic struck, one in five people living in Northern Ireland was living in poverty. That figure is one in four for those living in the Border counties. Such numbers will almost certainly surge as a result of rapidly increasing inflation, fuelling one of the worse cost-of-living crises in living memory. When people went to vote in the Assembly election, those bread-and-butter issues were to the fore of their considerations.

The decision by the UK to withdraw from the European Union in 2016 came as a shock to us all. Some 56% of the people of Northern Ireland voted to remain part of Europe. As is often the case, the voice and concerns of the people of Northern Ireland were neither heard nor listened to during the referendum debate. Brexit, they warned, could threaten the very integrity of the Good Friday Agreement, stability, peace and any chance of economic growth within the North of Ireland. A return to a hard border brought with it the fear of a return to the past, to the dark days we all thought were long behind us all. At a time of great political upheaval arising from Brexit, the Northern Ireland protocol, an arrangement arrived at in large part due to the flexibility of the EU and only put in place in an effort to help maintain stability and peace, offers significant competitive advantages to enterprises in the North. It is there to avoid a hard border or any kind of border infrastructure across this island. It does so by providing a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea, retaining Northern Ireland's access to the EU Single Market that other parts of the UK do not have. The unionist parties have insisted that the Northern Ireland protocol damages the North of Ireland, with Jeffrey Donaldson proclaiming that it is costing Northern Ireland £2.5 million a day, or £850 million a year. It remains entirely unclear where these figures have come from. A fact-finding article published in The Journal concluded that they may have come from an op-ed written by economist Dr. Esmond Birdie in the Belfast Newsletterlast year.

I want to touch on some of that research, because it is important to scrutinise these claims as they are being made. It would appear that this op-ed was based on the data of just four businesses, which Dr. Birdie concluded had incurred an increased cost of 6% in bringing in goods from the UK to the North of Ireland. This was then extrapolated to the entire Northern Ireland economy, which anyone who has ever conducted research will know is wrong for many reasons. Most important, Dr. Birdie only looked at the cost of doing business between Northern Ireland and mainland UK, and estimated this generalised 6% increase to be a cost of £650 million. The DUP has also included potential opportunity costs of another £250 million, which Birdie suggested have been incurred. The DUP has not clarified where these figures have come from or why it would include alleged opportunity costs which do not arise from the Northern Ireland budget, as it is being paid directly from Westminster, to help support businesses in the North of Ireland with increased costs. There is no evidence to suggest that this money has been taken away from other Departments in the North of Ireland, such as the Departments of Health and Education. Even being kind, and it is hard to do so in this case, it is clear that the data and conclusions are unreliable and potentially misleading.

The DUP has a responsibility to be honest with the people of Northern Ireland. If quoting figures and data, these should be tested, true and factual. To do otherwise is misleading and wrong. It is to the detriment of the people the party claims to represent. Even if it these figures were true, or even partially true, what Dr. Birdie and the DUP have failed to consider and include are the advantages the protocol has brought to the people of the North of Ireland and businesses trading with countries within the EU. Data sets on trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK are not great. It is something we should be asking to be improved when dealing with such matters with the UK Government. The Irish figures are clearer. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, tells us that during the first 11 months of 2021, for example, imports from Northern Ireland to the Republic increased by 64%, while exports to the North of Ireland rose by 48%. Those figures do not include figures from any of the other 26 member states. Despite this, the protocol continues to remain under threat, with the British Government discussing the possibility of unilateral action being taken on the issue in order to placate unionist parties. It is being triumphalist with the peace that we fought so hard for.

This is an affront to democracy and to all people in the North of Ireland. The failure of the unionist parties to accept this arrangement at face value, as an economic edge, and instead to see the protocol as a threat and one that undermines the union, shows us the challenges still faced by the people there today. The failure of unionist parties to allow Northern Ireland to move on, prosper, become stronger and grow is frustrating to many. They manufacture concerns and create illusions. They create monsters and tell people the monsters are to blame. Perhaps if they held up a mirror to themselves, they would see more clearly where the problem lies.

The recent Assembly elections demonstrate very clearly that change is afoot. For the first time in the Assembly’s history, the First Minister will not be a member of the unionist community. Sinn Féin has taken the majority and I congratulate the Sinn Féin MLAs who are present and the party in general. We have also seen a surge of support for the Alliance Party, which I also congratulate on its performance. It represents those who do not identify under the two traditional banners and it has more than doubled its seats. This is an historic moment for the North of Ireland. Yet again, however, it seems the democratic will of the people of Northern Ireland is being ignored.

It is clearer than ever that proper discussions on the future of the island of Ireland, a shared future in which a true republic, one that looks out for the public good, its people and public services and that will prioritise peace and stability, is the only way forward out of what seems to be an almost unsolvable political problem. We must do everything we can to protect and implement the Good Friday Agreement despite Brexit and all it has brought with it. We can only hope the UK Government remembers that this is a shared responsibility and one that must be taken seriously.

In the meantime, the people of the North of Ireland are watching, waiting and hoping for brighter futures. The North is not the problem. In many ways, it is the politicians who are the problem. Let us do all we can to remedy that by helping to put in place the necessary truth and reconciliation mechanism, to restore trust, preserve peace and move towards a thriving economy and a state that puts its people first.

In the brief speaking time remaining to me, I want to add my voice to those of other Deputies from across the Chamber and the political divide in objecting to the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill that seeks to provide an amnesty to people who have murdered. There is no truth without justice. I listened to Boris Johnson in Westminster call for vexatious prosecutions to be stopped. These people, who took the lives of innocent people, including children and people who were shot in the back, must be brought to justice. We must oppose this proposal at every step of the way.

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