Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Good Friday Agreement was a momentous achievement, not only by political leaders on the island of Ireland but also facilitated by political leaders in the United States, the European Union and others internationally. I am almost 50 now. It was half my life ago. In the first half of my life, I witnessed nothing but conflict. I saw it in my family first hand, in my community and across the Border in the nearest city, Derry. The agreement was of huge importance but it must be nurtured. That is why there has been a range of agreements since the Good Friday Agreement to try to embolden it. We had the Weston Park Agreement in 2001, the St. Andrews Agreement in 2006, the Hillsborough Agreement in 2010, the Stormont House Agreement in 2014, the Fresh Start agreement in 2015 and the most recent agreement, New Decade, New Approach, in 2020. We can see that the agreement needs consistent nurturing and challenging. In recent times, the role of the Conservative Party Government in Britain has been of huge concern. It clearly built a relationship with the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, which I believe led to the collapse of the institutions. It has engaged in utterly reckless political behaviour for its own selfish interests. It dispensed with the DUP when it suited, but we are all still dealing with the mess.

Clearly, the Irish Government is a co-guarantor. It must consistently challenge the British Government when it acts in bad faith. I will wrap up with a few areas on which the Irish Government needs to step up, including voting rights for Irish citizens in the North. They should have the right to vote for their President the next time the opportunity comes around in 2025. It would be outrageous if there were no referendum to allow that to happen. It should happen at the earliest opportunity. We also need a citizens' assembly.

We are on the pathway to Irish reunification. What happened with Brexit was reckless. There was no preparation or dialogue and we were let slip and sleepwalk into that scenario. I appeal to the Irish Government to organise a citizens’ assembly to prepare responsibly for the question that will inevitably be put to our people in the next decade about Irish reunification.

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