Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for opening up this debate and giving us the opportunity to talk on this important matter. Yes, Ireland consists of Thirty-two Counties, not Twenty-six Counties. We need to know more from the Government as to what it means by not opposing this motion. The Government needs to be more transparent as to what it believes, what it is thinking of, how this will be done or when will it be initiated. When will we make a start? Will there have to be a referendum? Our own people will have to be consulted. Will the people in the North have to be consulted? Will they get a chance to decide whether they want to vote for an Irish President just for the Twenty-six Counties? That might be an issue for them as well as for people down here.

There are a lot of issues around immigration; Deputy McGrath mentioned them. There seems to be a lot of immigrants coming from the UK through Northern Ireland and slipping down here. It creates a lot of issues for housing and social welfare and it is mucking things up. We have a new Minister for justice now who seems to be gaining control and trying to manage this. He has already made a good start and we are depending on the Minister to keep going.

What I know from my dealings with people from the North of Ireland, whether it was in marts around Kerry - in Cahersiveen, Castleisland or Kenmare - is that they are very honourable people. They come down here to buy cattle and they pay for our cattle and our sheep. On the other side, for the past eight years Deputy Collins, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae and myself have taken a lot of people to Kingsbridge Private Hospital to get their cataracts removed and to get hips and knees replaced, and we are still doing it. The hospital provides a great service up there. It is immediate. People need to get the operation before they lose their sight.

If they had to remain in the South of Ireland and depend on getting through the waiting list, many of them would go blind before their cataracts were removed, and that is a sad reflection. What we see happening up there is that the hospitals work all around the clock. They work the seven days and provide the service on Saturdays and Sundays, the very same as if it was Monday. We appreciate that because it helps people here in the South of Ireland to be with their elderly people going up to get their cataracts removed. Indeed, I was glad to be able to help a young foreign boy who was in Killarney. He was only nine years of age and he had to get his cataracts removed. He was about to go blind. It was only in Kingsbridge Private Hospital that I could get this done and I was very glad and proud to do that.

There are so many things to be considered. How will it be carried out? Who will be in charge of the ballot boxes up there? Will the UK Government and the powers that be up there facilitate this happening? We have to consider that. There are a lot of issues surrounding this. It is a very laudable idea, and there is no denying that the people of the North, of those Six Counties, fought to be free and to be under Irish control as well as any of those who came before us and fought here in the South of Ireland. They were instrumental and did their part on every occasion. Therefore, we cannot deny them, if that is what they want, but we need to hear from their side that that is what they want. There is a democratic system up there in the Six Counties as well as there is here. It will need more direction and more involvement with the two Governments. The Irish Government and the UK Government and the Stormont Assembly need to get together and see how this will go forward. It would be nice to see that happening. It is a good idea but we need to get some idea of how long it is going to take. We need to get more transparency for our people down here because I have no doubt they will be asking us a lot of questions in the coming days. We need to have some kind of an answer for them and we are depending on the Government to give us that answer.

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