Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is an interesting piece of legislation. We are repealing the spent and obsolete secondary instruments enacted on or after 1 January 1821 and before 1 January 1861, as well as those instruments enacted before 1821 that have not been previously repealed.

I suspect that many Deputies did not anticipate they would be speaking on this issue but, in fairness, it is not only a decent piece of housekeeping that needs to be done from a legislative point of view, but also a reminder of where we came from and the particular circumstances that arose. We are talking about legislation that was foisted upon Ireland by the British colonial power from 1821, which was literally 20 years after the Act of Union. The Act of Union was about Britain further imposing the power it had in Ireland following 1798 and the attempts by the Irish people to rid themselves of foreign occupation and oppression. This is about the whole history of colonialism and its parts, including subjugation and, obviously, rebellion. Deputy Ó Snodaigh and others have spoken about Daniel O'Connell. There was a whole constitutional battle relating to Catholic emancipation and the effort to remove the penal laws which then morphed into the Home Rule movement. I see that as an abject failure because, at the end of the day, the colonial power, Britain, paid no heed to providing anything to Ireland that was not going to be taken. Unfortunately, for a significant part of our history, that involved being taken by force. We had the Young Irelanders, the Fenians and those who followed in their footsteps. Whatever freedom this island knows is on the basis of what happened.

This was also the period, in 1847 or from 1845 to 1850, of the Famine. We often talk about the wonderful Irish diaspora but it is always worth remembering how that diaspora happened. It came about because, in a land that could have looked after its people, they were not looked after. This was not only because it was under occupation, but also as a result of the neo-liberal politics in operation in Britain and the idea that market forces were far more important and things were allowed to operate as they were. Food had to be sold as a good and it did not really matter that 1 million people in this land died as a result.

We can be very thankful we do not live in those very difficult times and we are only too delighted we live in the modern age. While we are dealing with legacy legislation, however, we should also look at dealing with the legacy issues that remain. This island is partitioned and we should be looking in this House and beyond at making sure the preparatory moves are made by the State to do our part in respect of what a united Ireland might look like. It is up to Government to come up with some idea for a forum where this conversation could happen and then we would need to look at a referendum.

Even before that, we have huge issues which need to be dealt with as regards taxation laws across this island that do not work properly. The Minister of State would be aware of this in the context of PayPal. It became apparent with remote working and the issues caused there. We need to deal with these issues. The previous Taoiseach spoke about a possible hub to deal with cross-Border issues and that needs to be looked at again.

See this speech in context