Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Government, I welcome the report Lessons from the Architects of the Good Friday Agreement. The report is an important and timely contribution to our understanding of the agreement and the roles played by so many in shaping peace on our island.

Marking and celebrating the agreement and everything it made possible is a key priority for the Government in this milestone anniversary year. We have delivered a range of events both at home and abroad to that end, and I am very glad that the Oireachtas has also played a prominent role in marking the 25th anniversary. There have been a range of debates and motions in Dáil Éireann and the Seanad to which Members from across the political families of the Oireachtas have contributed. While there may be many other issues on which we differ, it is fair to say that the Oireachtas has been as one in voicing its support and recognition for the transformational effect of the Good Friday Agreement.

I would like to pay particular tribute the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, whose work has been central to how the Oireachtas has engaged with this anniversary. The enormous effort invested by the Cathaoirleach of the committee, Deputy O’Dowd, and by the members as a whole, is evident in the excellent report Lessons from the Architects of the Good Friday Agreement. The report is full of insight and hard-won lessons. I am particularly pleased that the report and the individual testimonies by those who played a central role in the negotiations are available on the Oireachtas website, ensuring that they are widely available to the public.

The Good Friday Agreement is a remarkable achievement that broke the cycle of violence that ravaged the island of Ireland for 30 years. On 7 March, I participated in a Seanad Private Members' debate on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Listening to the statements of the Members of that House, I was struck by the impact made by the evidence they heard while preparing this report, which directly influenced many of their interventions. Reading the report myself, I was struck by the debt that we owe to those who sacrificed so much to make peace possible. There are many people alive today because Hume and Trimble, Ahern and Blair, and many others, came together for peace. In doing so, they often faced criticism from their own supporters and friends. They made difficult compromises on decommissioning, the release of paramilitary prisoners and changes to our Constitution. They did so because they were motivated by the needs of the people of Northern Ireland and of this island and these islands as a whole. The leaders who worked to agree the Good Friday Agreement understood what their people needed because they were grounded in their communities.

John Hume was a teacher first, at St. Columb's College in Derry. Before he was ever elected to any parliament, John was the president of the Irish League of Credit Unions at 27, having established the first ever credit union in Northern Ireland at only 23. I have seen the excellent work done by credit unions in my own constituency. I know that the credit union movement has improved the lives of many. For John, it was a way of ensuring that hardworking people had access to the credit they needed to build better futures for their families.

Building a better future gets to the heart of what the Good Friday Agreement was about: breaking the old cycles of violence and patterns of mistrust, and committing collectively to making something better together. John Hume often reminded us, "you can't eat a flag; real politics is about the living standards, about social and economic development." Politics is about real people, issues affecting local communities and making lives better. When politicians are grounded in their communities and are motivated by a conviction that it is their duty to make the lives of their citizens better, they can take difficult decisions.

We in this House know that the common interest must always take priority over political expediency. We know that leaders sometimes have to make challenging decisions, because they are in the best interests of those they represent. Political leadership is as vital today as it was 25 years ago. Northern Ireland needs, deserves and is entitled to a functioning Executive and Assembly to make decisions locally. The current blockage benefits no one, delivers for no one and only curbs the ability of elected representatives to serve the needs of their constituents. It also impedes the functioning of strand two of the Good Friday Agreement. It is vital that the North-South Ministerial Council is allowed to continue its work as soon as possible.

Local political leadership was essential to the initial agreement. As the architects’ report reminds us, addressing issues of common concern provided a way forward in the 1990s. Reg Empey told the committee that local government gave parties the opportunity to do "something to improve the lot of their constituents but which did not require any significant political sacrifices or arguments over national issues." This built trust and relationships that later became central to formal negotiations on peace.

In Northern Ireland, civil society has often been called upon to fill gaps left empty by politics. The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition is a key example of this. Recognising that women had been almost entirely omitted from the preceding negotiations, a group of women, all active in education and civil society, demanded and earned their rightful place at the negotiating table. Reading the committee's report, Bronagh Hinds's reflections on the coalition's cross-community membership who, upon joining, signed up to being "willing to reach an accommodation" were particularly striking. They approached the negotiations utterly convinced of the need to reach an agreement. Through their work as civil society practitioners, they saw the cost at community level every day of the absence of peace. The women's coalition is the surest proof of the idea that peace is ultimately made possible by people; by politicians like Nobel laureates, John Hume and David Trimble, who led their parties to a deal, but also by community leaders who crossed sectarian lines to create a better future for all. Even through the darkest years of the Troubles, grassroots organisations worked hard to build connections across communities.

This was explicitly acknowledged in the agreement, which recognised and valued the work done by community organisations. It saw them as having a "vital role in consolidating peace and political agreement." The Government has long acknowledged this role and sought to empower civil society in pushing forward the work of peace and reconciliation. In 1982, the Government established the reconciliation fund, which since then has provided more than €60 million to organisations across the island of Ireland working on building and sustaining peace.

We have been proud to support transformative work being done across the island by all traditions and communities from youth groups and sports clubs to organisations empowering rural practitioners, the many vibrant women's organisations, those supporting victims and survivors, and many more. There is a strong will at all levels of civil society to heal the wounds of the past and to make this island a better, more reconciled place. This year the Government will spend more than €5 million via the reconciliation fund to build better relations within and between traditions. In building these connections the fund works towards the true reconciliation envisaged by the architects of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Good Friday Agreement transformed what we thought was possible and what we could hope for in the future. It transformed relationships at every level across these islands. It has created new opportunities for North-South and east-west co-operation. It is for this reason that the Government's shared island initiative is working to enhance co-operation, connection and mutual understanding on the island and engage with all communities and traditions to build consensus on a shared future.

Through the shared island initiative, we have committed €1 billion up to 2030 to deliver all-island investment commitments, including the Narrow Water Bridge project, which recently went out to tender. Through a €40 million North-South research programme for higher education institutions, we are supporting all-island collaborations that build mutual understanding.

The Government knows that civil society has an important role to play in building a new shared future. It is for this reason that the new shared island civic society fund is making funding available to organisations working on a North-South basis in communities across the island of Ireland, building their capacity to address the next generation of challenges.

An issue that has arisen time and again in this House is the strong concern shared across all parties on the British Government's current approach to dealing with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. The Government believes that the British Government's legacy Bill has the potential to do real damage to society across Northern Ireland, if it passes, and so does every major victims group in Northern Ireland.

The Tánaiste met with the WAVE Trauma Centre on his first visit to Northern Ireland. He also met with Justice for the Forgotten, and spoke at the recent commemoration of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. The Ministers, Deputies Harris and Humphreys, met with WAVE and the family of Columba McVeigh earlier this week. I have met with Amnesty International to hear its concerns on the legacy Bill. We continue to prioritise hearing directly from civil society voices and those most directly affected by this Bill. We have raised our shared concerns at the highest political level and will continue to do so.

I know we have the support of Members across the House as we urge the British Government to pause the Bill and to engage meaningfully with victims and their families, and the Northern Irish parties. Any way forward on legacy must be based on agreed human rights standards, with victims at its centre. Every victim and survivor deserves the right to access justice. I know that members of the committee have been particularly engaged in opposing the Bill and I thank them for this.

While this report highlights the pivotal role played by the architects in crafting the Good Friday Agreement, it is also important that we take a moment to acknowledge that the Good Friday Agreement belongs first and foremost to the people of this island. Just over 25 years ago, on 22 May 1998, the people went to ballot boxes located in schools, community centres and halls on both sides of the Border across this island. In Northern Ireland, when the people voted on the text of the Good Friday Agreement, 71% of them voted for peace. In this jurisdiction we went directly to the people via referendum to change our Constitution, to reflect commitments made in the agreement, including a path to a united Ireland, which "shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people". We undertook to allow the State to be bound by the British-Irish Agreement. The referendum here passed with close to 95% approval, which was remarkable "Yes" vote by any account. The endorsement by people across the island gives the agreement enduring democratic legitimacy; and it confers on both Governments and the parties in Northern Ireland a special duty to protect the agreement and the peace it brought about.

This report is a vital and timely reminder that peace needs tending. The Government will not be found wanting in this regard. Peace and reconciliation on this island will always be our priority.

See this speech in context