Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

I welcome this motion, as somebody who passionately believes in the national reunification, not unification, but reunification of the national territory. It is an important step forward and it is long overdue. There has been foot-dragging on this and we need a timeline for progress. National reunification is important. All parties nominally sign up to it. I believe we should do better and we should be proactive about it. The Taoiseach talks a lot about the shared island project. Let us share and extend democracy on the island. We have had Presidents Robinson, McAleese and Higgins. They have done great work and outreach to both communities and indeed all communities in the North, even the very small minority communities.

Increasing numbers of citizens in the North are more open to all-Ireland co-operation. There is more co-operation now through business, sports, culture, health, politics and the North-South Ministerial Council, which is meeting again. Hopefully its role expands and I welcome that that is happening. We saw a setback yesterday with the A5 motorway project. Unfortunately, that has been held up again. Hopefully, it will get started and that can be done. It is important for Tyrone, Derry and indeed Donegal. The Good Friday Agreement confirmed the right of Irish citizenship to everybody on the island of Ireland. We have had candidates from the North. We had Martin McGuinness, an excellent candidate from the Six Counties. We had Mary McAleese as President, who did a good job, and was open and inclusive in her outlook and approach. They do not have the right to vote for themselves, their families cannot vote for them and the communities they come from are refused that right.

We cannot blame the British Government for this one. This is our job. The solution is here in this building, in this room and in Government Buildings. I am disappointed that I do not see it in the programme for Government. I am open to correction. I cannot find this in it. I was hoping it would be in the programme for Government. It is a matter of equality and democracy. We cannot have any more foot-dragging. The electoral register in the North is much improved and is probably more accurate than the one here at the moment. Polling stations could easily be put in a community centre in the larger towns. I think people would come out and vote in numbers. Let us extend democracy and let us start fulfilling the promises of the Good Friday Agreement. Some of us supported that reluctantly back in 1997 and what was eventually put forward in 1998. We supported it on the basis that these all-Ireland dimensions would improve and expand. This is one practical step that we can take to do it. Nominally, we are supposed to be all agreed to it here, but I do not want to see it just be nominal. As somebody who passionately supports the reunification of the national territory, we need to be active about this. The Government has Opposition support this evening and we should do it sooner rather than later.

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