Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Molaim an díospóireacht seo. Tá sé thar am go raibh rudaí ag dul ar aghaidh sa Tuaisceart agus fáiltím go bhfuil sé sin socraithe anois agus go bhfuil administration nua le hairí nua sa Tuaisceart. Molaim Michelle O'Neill agus Emma Little-Pengelly freisin as ucht an comhoibriú atá á dhéanamh acu. Ní thuigfimid go deo conas mar a thitfidh rudaí amach sa Tuaisceart ach tús maith é leath na hoibre mar a deir an seanfhocal. I welcome the developments in Northern Ireland. In particular, I congratulate Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, the First Minister and deputy First Minister, and the new members of the administration in the North. It is indeed very welcome. It is very late in the day, considering the number of times the assembly has been abeyance or not meeting. It is really important that they have got off to a very good, co-operative, hard-working start. As a Member of the Oireachtas and Chairman of the Good Friday implementation committee, I will do everything I can, along with the committee members, to ensure that we continue to work and co-operate with all parties in the North. In fact, one of my colleagues, Deputy Feighan, has set up a new organisation of elected representatives. We will meet in Stormont next Thursday and at least 25 Members of this House will be in attendance. Hopefully, it will be an important new start for us as well.

I also welcome to the Oireachtas today the British Labour Party spokesman, Mr. Hilary Benn. My committee and I have just met with him for an hour and a half. He showed himself to be totally familiar with all of the issues, North and South. He gave us his time, he listened to all the points we made, and he responded very well to them. I would hope that if and when he does take office, there will be a new atmosphere North, South, east and west. I want to stress the fact that when the British and Irish Governments are ad idem, things work out. In particular, the Good Friday Agreement happened because the stars aligned in Britain, Ireland and America, and we all worked together. We got a hugely successful outcome based on peace and a future working together. It is our duty, as politicians and particularly as a committee, to deliver on that and we will do our very best to do so.

I also acknowledge the work of Lord Caine, a British Minister. He is the person who brought in the controversial legislation. He has met with our committee a number of times and is fully familiar with our views. We have had a frank exchange of views on many occasions, but he has always been available to us.

For those who might be interested, members of the North South Youth Forum will be attending the committee tomorrow. They will be talking about how they see their countries in the future. It is hugely important that the voice of young people, who will hold office in the future, will be in this Parliament tomorrow. We are really looking forward to it. I think more than 30 of them are visiting. We look forward to a very useful debate.

On the issue of the border poll, Brexit and the intransigence of different parties has brought that agenda forward, certainly in terms of what my constituents are saying to me. They saying that they want to see a united Ireland, but they also want - and this I think this applies across all parties in this House - consent that unionists willingly embrace and get involved in. We cannot have it any other way. Our island has been divided for too long. Historically, the problems go back hundreds of years, but we have an opportunity again to address them. It must be the proposition of this House, and of all parties in this House, to prepare for a border poll, and not just to call a vote. We could have a vote like the Brexit vote. We saw what happened there. We must have facts and propositions that are thought through and worked on in health, housing, education, finance and infrastructure - all of those things. At the core of it all must be the willingness to consent of all the communities in the North. We cannot forget that the Unionist community is no longer the majority community. There are increasingly disparate views in the North. Working together makes the best sense.

At our meeting today, Deputy Brendan Smith made the point that the value of North-South trade has gone from something like €2 billion 20 years ago to more than €12 billion a year now. The North-South economy is hugely significant. It is hugely important that we work together. It is important that the Taoiseach outlined his priorities under the shared island initiative. He talked about working together, and how after 25 years we have only really scratched the surface of what we can do. We must now seize this opportunity for a new phase. I want to see new links developed and old relationships flourish on a cross-Border basis. The Taoiseach said this Government will not be found wanting. The Government has committed €25 million to the shared island fund, which will be used to expand higher education provision in the north west and to move forward with the Ulster Canal restoration and the Narrow Water Bridge project in north County Louth. Those projects are very important to me and a Deputy on the other benches. Hopefully, we will be able to welcome, see and use that. You can put your posters up there.

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