Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

It is a pity the Tánaiste is not in the Chamber for this debate. He is the senior Minister responsible and is not here to listen to different voices.

I welcome the restoration of the Executive. The past two years have been a disaster for ordinary people in the North of Ireland. They have suffered significantly due to the lack of proper, functional institutions. I will mention the role of the public service unions, which was massive in forcing the DUP back into the Assembly. I thank all the people, including the many Aontú members, who took part in those public service protests, including our deputy leader, Gemma Brolly.

While news of the restoration of the Executive is welcome, it is now blindingly clear that Stormont must be reformed. No one party can ever bring down the Stormont Executive again. No one party can ever be allowed to hold the people of the North to ransom again. It is imperative that this is not forgotten by the two Governments. I raised this over and over again with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. In fairness to the Tánaiste, he has accepted there is a need to reform Stormont and how it functions. The problem I now have is the issue of timing. Often, inertia is the default speed the Government travels at when it comes to the North of Ireland, but it is very important that reforms of Stormont happen before the next election. That means changing the laws under which Stormont functions.

The past number of months have been incredible. The democratic rights of the people of the North of Ireland were dependent upon the decision of a minority party. The democratic rights of 1.8 million people depended not upon an election but on the decision of a few dozen DUP members of the Executive. The DUP is a minority political party, yet it held up the democratic rights of everybody else. That is wrong and cannot be allowed continue. If truth be told, the Irish and British Governments tolerated this. They tolerated that level of ransom-holding by the DUP. The negotiations that brought the DUP back into the Executive were a nonsense as well. The idea that only the DUP and the British Government were in negotiations with each other, that all the other political parties were excluded from those negotiations, and that was the key that opened up the Executive again, is absolutely incredible. In truth, there has been a change in the direction of the North as a result of this new deal, which is a construct of the Tories and the DUP.

Will a date, process and time span be given for reform of the North of Ireland? If they are not, we will see crises arise over and over again. There is a serious consequence to all of this. The North's economy, society and very fabric are fraying at a phenomenal rate at present due to the lack of investment and the lack of a functioning Assembly. It is in the middle of a major political crisis. One in seven people are on hospital waiting lists, 300,000 people are living in poverty, and 45,000 people are on waiting lists for houses at present. Key public sector investment is significantly lower than anywhere in Ireland or Britain. Road infrastructure is in a mess. The A5 is the location of continuous deaths. Currently, Lough Neagh is turning into a cesspool. Policing is shedding staff at a serious rate at the moment. Maternity services are being shed in Causeway Hospital, surgery services are being shed in Newry Hospital, and Enniskillen is losing its accident and emergency department. It also needs to be called out that Michelle O'Neill was the person who launched the Bengoa report, which is the template for these services being closed. It cannot be the case that Sinn Féin is at the centre of the closure of health services in the North of Ireland. Currently, spending in schools is lower than it is in Ireland, Scotland, England or Wales. Sinn Féin, the DUP, the SDLP, the UUP and the Alliance Party have cut more from school spending in the past ten years than anywhere else on these islands. The pupil-teacher ratio is steadily in trouble in the North.

All of this points to a financial crisis that very few people are talking about. The instincts of most of the parties in the North of Ireland are to get a few bob from their local landlord, which is the Tory Government. That should not be the way. Scotland currently raises 20% of its spending through local taxes, and Wales raises 10% of its spending through such taxes, while in the North it is only 5.5% through rates and a few other charges. We need to see the devolution of more taxation powers back to the North of Ireland from London. That has to happen.

I welcome that the Government is taking the British Government to the European Court of Human Rights in connection with the legacy Bill. Aontú has pushed that solidly in recent years. However, it is important to note the latest reports that former Northern secretary Peter Hain has said he has been told authoritatively that key legacy inquests are now being delayed on purpose to lapse before 1 May, so there can be no resolution or justice for people. That is a total abuse of the justice system, and I ask the Government to come out strongly against that, hammer the British Government over it, and make sure they reverse that and that the inquests in place deliver justice for the families who need it so much.

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