Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before becoming a Member of this House, I was a teacher. Every morning, I would begin by doing a short Irish lesson. I will give this Chamber a short Irish lesson. The word "Tory" is a derivative of the old Irish word "toraidhe", which means robbers. I was watching Sky News earlier and I saw the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, grovelling. He was on his feet defending a party in 10 Downing Street. That is not the real issue, however. For so many people on this island, regardless of what tradition they come from, the real issue is that Mr. Johnson is robbing the young people of Northern Ireland, unionists, republicans and youngsters with no political allegiance, of the bright-light future the 1998 Good Friday Agreement paved for them. I will elaborate on that. To talk of dismantling protocols, introducing legacy and reconciliation legislation and delivering on Brexit, as the British Government repeatedly does, is to continue that abusive relationship from Westminster all the way to the Six Counties in Northern Ireland and it is letting them down.

Only a few weeks ago, when the election there was in full swing, Deputy McAuliffe and I, along with many colleagues in Fianna Fáil, travelled up to canvas with our colleagues in our sister party, the SDLP. We met young people on the streets of Newry who do not feel shackled to their past. Their parents may identify as nationalist and their great-grandfather might have been unionist but they do not feel shackled to the past. They are talking about issues such as climate change and marriage equality. They are talking about language rights and all the issues that young people should be inspired to stand up and fight for, but every action that I have seen coming from Boris Johnson recently, insofar as Northern Ireland is concerned, robs them of a bright future that the Good Friday Agreement paved for them.

I will drill down on some of those issues. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill would offer immunity to those deemed to have co-operated with the independent commission on reconciliation and information recovery. It would stop further inquests and civil actions relating to the Troubles. That is wrong. Victimhood and loss belongs to a family or an individual and to deny people the right to justice with a stroke of a pen or the enactment of legislation is unfathomable. The British Government needs to be pushed back on that. The message that must be voiced repeatedly by the Irish Government, in unison with our partners in Europe, is that this legislation is absolutely unacceptable. It does the opposite of delivering on reconciliation.

The objective of the Government at all times should be to support the parties. No matter what we might say and hear and what political rivalries we have, we support parties that are willing to go into government and form an Executive in Northern Ireland to rule, govern and deliver for their people. The objective of the Government should at all times be to uphold and defend the Good Friday Agreement. The Northern Ireland protocol is a breach of the co-operative spirit that the Good Friday Agreement was supposed to instil in terms of both Governments working together.

If I can speak on the tourism brief on which I am my party's spokesman, the measures Boris Johnson's Government is proposing to introduce to curb migration and illegal immigration into his country might work in the Dover context where inflatables land on the shore day after day but what has been designed for Dover does not work for Derry. The British Government needs to rethink what it is doing. A multibillion euro tourism industry is ready to flourish as we come out of Covid. We will soon see tour buses turn around at the Border because it will not be worth the hassle for German and French tourists on a one-week tour of Ireland to cross it and they will remain down here. That, too, will be a retrograde step. What has been designed for Dover will not work for Derry or the border with the North. Boris Johnson may not admit it but he is slowly trying to reimpose a border that all of us in this House have been striving to dismantle for decades.

I will finish by saying that the flag behind the Leas-Cheann Comhairle is an embracing one. The orange in the flag stands for unionism. Many of us in this House may be from a different tradition but we are willing to cede some of our old loyalties and speak with unionists as we seek to unite Ireland in a new way.

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