Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work of the Chair of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Deputy O’Dowd, and Deputy Brendan Smith who is also present. It was a hugely interesting piece of work for us to do as a committee. I thank all the witnesses who gave witness to what it was like for them, the challenges and opportunities they had and the setting out of the Good Friday Agreement. It was a phenomenal international achievement to get an agreement that did what the Good Friday Agreement did. It was important to look back at the first 25 years after the agreement and see how it worked out and what was done under it. It also gave us an opportunity to see where we are and what we have achieved and to look forward. It also served its purpose in that sense.

It is important to look at some of what the agreement contained, for instance, its recognition that it is "the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both, as they may so choose, and accordingly confirm that their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship is accepted by both Governments and would not be affected by any future change in the status of Northern Ireland. That was hugely important in what the agreement was trying to achieve. As the committee went through its work, members saw that many elements of the Good Friday Agreement have yet to be implemented. That knowledge gives us an opportunity and impetus to implement them. Both the British and Irish Governments, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, have a responsibility to do so. To take the bill of rights and the failure to implement an all-island charter of rights, for example, we must concentrate on how we will achieve that together and ensure that what was laid out in the Good Friday Agreement is implemented. The agreement also provided for parity of esteem. The whole ethos of the agreement is based on parity of esteem and that, too, must be a focus.

We mentioned the legacy Bill earlier and the problems it puts in focus. Even at this late stage, I urge the British Government to look at what all the human rights organisations and victims are saying about this Bill. Everyone agrees. There is cross-party agreement across this island on the Bill. Internationally, Amnesty International and other commentators agree. I recently heard Nuala O'Loan speak about it. She stated the Bill does not lend itself to amendment. It must be scrapped. Members of the committee will travel to Westminster again in a few weeks' time to plead with those who are intent on pushing the legacy Bill through. The Cathaoirleach agreed earlier that there has been an improvement in British-Irish relations. It is damaging to British-Irish relations for the British to unilaterally go ahead with this legacy Bill. They must withdraw it at this stage. I urge them not to put the Irish Government in a position where the only alternative is to take an inter-state case. No one wants to see that but, at the same time, we cannot leave a situation where individuals across the North are left to try to fight this on their own. There will be an obligation on the Irish Government to do that.

I also acknowledge the role of the US Administration, including, in recent times, President Biden, Richard Neal in the Ways and Means Committee and of others in the US Administration. I also acknowledge the part Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George Mitchell and many others played at the time. It was great to hear from George Mitchell as part of the committee's discussions. I thank all of them for standing fast to protect the Good Friday Agreement and ask them to continue to do so. In that vein, I also acknowledge the contribution of EU member states, especially post-Brexit, in protecting the Good Friday Agreement and what it meant.

In the other work we are doing in the committee we are also looking at economic opportunities. It is hugely interesting, for instance, to look at the IBEC report, For Peace and Prosperity. We have a real opportunity to create a new, independent united Ireland. I was taken by the Ireland's Future event, especially the contribution by Gerry Adams in which he stated:

Let it be very clear: unionists have a place of right in the new Ireland... The unionist population and its political representatives working with the rest of us on this island is the surest guarantee that their cultural identity - British and unionist - will prosper and be protected in a new independent Ireland.

That is where we are at this stage. We are looking forward to the opportunities that will be created. In the economic contributions to the committee, we heard that we have never had an opportunity to really look at our welfare and pensions systems and what underpins us as a society in a new Ireland. We have an opportunity to look at those values and to have those values reflected in our all-island approach to health, tourism, education and many other areas. Let us together grab these opportunities that are presented to us in our generation and create that new Ireland so that we can look forward to the next 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement.

I once again call on the Irish Government to provide us with an opportunity for a citizens' assembly. As one of the co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, it has an obligation to prepare. That is set out. I ask the Irish Government to set up a citizens' assembly that will be able to look at all these aspects and prepare for a referendum on Irish unity. I ask the British Government to set a date for a referendum on Irish unity to bring us forward through the next 25 years.

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