Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank an Taoiseach for his reply and I welcome the fact that he has had engagement with the political parties in Northern Ireland and the British Government. I also welcome that an Tánaiste and other members of the Government attended the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in mid-January. All those meetings are important, particularly in the absence of the North-South institutions functioning.

I was in Belfast with other Fianna Fáil parliamentary colleagues in early January. Among the people and groups we met were political parties; Wave Trauma, which is a powerful organisation that advocates for victims of the Troubles; Linda Ervine and the east Belfast Irish language group in the East Belfast Mission; the Greater Shankill Partnership; and Paul Doherty of Foodstock community homeless hub in west Belfast. There was a clear message from all those groups that they want the institutions and the Assembly back up and running. They want the Executive in place and the North-South bodies functioning as designed and agreed in the Good Friday Agreement. From speaking to many businesses in my neighbouring counties north of the Border, I know they want any outstanding issues relating to the protocol resolved as soon as possible. Any interruption to trade in Northern Ireland is a disadvantage for us as well. I sincerely hope progress can be made in resolving outstanding issues.

On the legacy issues, since I last spoke on Northern Ireland issues in this House, I attended a solemn and appropriate commemoration in Belturbet on 28 December last to mark the 50th anniversary of the Belturbet bombing. That is one of the many legacy issues that has not been resolved. Neither the O'Reilly or Stanley families have got the truth about who carried out that heinous crime which killed two young teenagers: Geraldine O'Reilly and Paddy Stanley. There are other instances in my constituency of such issues that need to be resolved. Those families know the chances of getting a prosecution are slim but the least they deserve is the truth. The present British Government proposals are absolutely unacceptable.

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