Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I welcome the return of the Assembly, the restoration of the Executive and the functioning of the North-South bodies. It is good to see MLAs back in the chamber and being able to get on with the work they were elected to do in May 2022. It is particularly welcome that the DUP has finally decided to re-enter the democratic institutions and that the outcome of the Assembly election is now finally being respected. I take this opportunity to congratulate Michelle O’Neill on her election to the position of First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly on her election as deputy First Minister and, indeed, all of the Ministers who have taken up their new roles. I also wish the outgoing Speaker, Alex Maskey, all the best as he steps down from elected politics.

There is a historic change taking place in the North. We have witnessed the election of a First Minister from a nationalist and republican background to an institution set up to ensure this would never happen. That such a day would ever come would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Because of the Good Friday Agreement, that day has now been realised and more change is coming. More and more, people from all sections of society, on both sides of the Border, are joining the conversation on Irish unity. More and more people are asking questions and seeking answers.

An Irish Government needs to take the lead in enabling a national conversation on unification. Deputy Lahart spoke about having conversations about things such as our national flag and national anthem. I would welcome that. We need to see an Irish Government lead out and have those conversations with everybody on this island. While elected unionist politicians may not want to be seen to be involving themselves in these conversations, former politicians, business people, trade unionists and many other people from civic unionist backgrounds are actively and regularly engaging and, in some cases, promoting these conversations.

It is not just Sinn Féin saying that the Government needs to lead this conversation. Numerous leading academics working in this area are on record as saying this needs to happen, and that we do not want to sleepwalk into another Brexit-type scenario where no forward planning or preparation has taken place. Indeed, at the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said that this decade is a realistic goal for a border poll to take place but that significant work on complex issues would need to be done beforehand. He is correct. One thing is for sure. If others are determined to miss this opportunity, Sinn Féin is prepared and willing to take on that significant work.

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