Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I see reports that a Garda van has been set alight and fireworks and missiles are being thrown at gardaí as a large crowd have gathered outside Citywest Hotel. I condemn that violence. It is an ongoing situation.

I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. I thank Deputy McDonald and her colleagues in Sinn Féin for putting forward this motion. It is timely. I am glad to hear that the Government will not be opposing the motion. It is good that we can unite in this House on this issue. Indeed, it is a proposition in the motion that we in Labour support. As the oldest political party in the State, we in Labour aspire to achieve an agreed united island founded on fairness and equality for all our communities. We are Connollyite republicans in the spirit of James Connolly. We believe our nation would be better united. We are also internationalists. We recognise that the island of Ireland exists within a wider European and global family and that unification - the question we are discussing tonight - would take place within that context, as it has implications for the EU post Brexit.

I was delighted to address the SDLP conference in Belfast at the beginning of this month. Deputies Gibney, Currie and Moynihan were also there. There were different representatives from different parties. It was an important event to be at. Former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, was also there. He is no longer in this Dáil.

It is important that we engage North and South in these events. As a sister party of the SDLP we always ensure representation at each other's party conferences. Last weekend I led a Labour Party delegation to the congress of the Party of European Socialists in Amsterdam. There we were with the SDLP and others from across Europe who share a commitment to the achievement of a social Europe and who recognise the vital importance of the European project and the EU to the future of this island. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, spoke previously about his participation in Ireland's Future events. I was delighted to participate on behalf of Labour in events run by Ireland's Future in Dublin and Belfast over recent years. These are superb events which bring together civic society organisations and those of us in politics. I pay tribute to Senator Frances Black, who has done so much to drive civic engagement North and South.

We in Labour stand for a real Republic across the island, one which values equality and redistribution, which can see beyond sectarianism and which recognises that true equality is based on pluralism. We all recognise the differences between communities in the Ireland of 2025 are far more diverse than merely green and orange. Ours is a pluralist society now, North and South of the Border. That is something to be celebrated. Sectarianism has no place in a partitioned Ireland or a united Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and others spoke about jibes being thrown and insults based on religion. That has no place and should have no place in the Ireland of today or a future united Ireland. Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, sexism and transphobia should have no place on this island. Crucially, no moving or removal of any border on this island should ever come at the price of a human life. Paramilitarism and the normalisation of violence represent a darkness to which we simply cannot return.

We support the holding of a referendum on unity. We want to see preparatory work under way now. We support the motion. However, we do believe a huge amount of preparatory work will be necessary. We must learn from the mistakes of Brexit. We must ensure that both North and South of the Border, people are clear on what they are voting on. As others have said, the Good Friday Agreement must be our guiding star and the principle of consent must be absolutely central, as we all acknowledge.

Generosity must be at the heart of any successful transition. We do not want to swap the majoritarianism of the past for a new one. We need to take inspiration from the work of the great social democratic peace maker, the SDLP's John Hume, who was courageous enough to rewrite the canon of Irish nationalism by pointing out that it is people that matter, not territories. Because people matter, so to do their economic circumstances. As he famously said, you cannot eat a flag. There is no more republican sentiment than that. Hume was inherently critical of Irish nationalism’s failure to address unionist opposition to its unity project, in both its constitutional and republican guises, from Home Rule to the War of Independence. We need to be careful that there is no slippage back from that.

There is not anything inherently natural or predetermined about any political settlement on this island. We do need to ensure that under any constitutional arrangement, respect and allegiance are fundamental. In 2025, there are no planters and there are no Gaels. There are only those who by accident of birth or act of choice call this island home. I talked about diverse identities. I think it is hugely positive that we now see a growing sense on the North of people who identify not as Protestant or Catholic, or unionist or nationalist, but rather as being Northern Irish, Irish, British Irish, as having a hybrid identity. In the same way, in this jurisdiction, people would regard themselves as Nigerian Irish, Polish Irish or in my case Czech Irish. That was a very unusual thing to be when I was growing up but happily it is no longer so unusual. Our national identities are not set in 1916, 1922 or 1998. Identity is a living, breathing phenomenon. National identity is unrecognisable today from what it as a century ago and undoubtedly will be different again in another century.

Demographic changes and those changes in how people identify make it even more imperative that we abide by the principles of the political guiding star of the Good Friday Agreement. The consent of the maximum number possible from all traditions must be our goal in seeking a shared future. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, spoke about the requirement of majority in the Good Friday Agreement but many people, including Seamus Mallon, pointed out that 51% would be a very slim majority on which to build a shared future on this island. That is why it is so important that we do the necessary work to enable the making of informed choices in referendums about the future of the island. We want to ensure that our most marginalised communities are protected from the consequences of a hasty campaign, or the vanity project of any one group seeking ideological victory.

It is right that we would start that process now. It is fair to critique the Government for doing too little at this stage to build on that process. This motion is right to call on the Government to work to secure a date for the referendums on unity, bearing in mind that there is a good deal of preparatory work that must be undertaken. In terms of timing, former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who is featured rather heavily in current news cycles, previously suggested the thirtieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. It seemed at the time he suggested it like it was not a bad idea. It is perhaps a shame that the current Taoiseach is saying it will not happen in this decade, while the Minister of State has said it will not happen in the lifetime of this Government. To say that so categorically and to rule it out so soon pushes back any sense of preparatory work. Procrastination cannot be justified by long-fingering preparations. We absolutely agree that an all-island citizens’ assembly or assemblies, approved ideally by the Stormont Assembly as well as the Oireachtas, should be an integral part of the preparatory process. We also think that we should be reviving the old Green and White Paper tradition of assembling evidence, identifying problems and solutions prior to the holding of a citizens' assembly. The Green Paper puts together the broad range of issues and the White Paper focuses on possible solutions. This process could and should be adopted by Government, and I have previously called on the Government to do this, to identify the issues that would require discussion and deliberation at open and transparent citizens’ assemblies. I welcome the work of the Taoiseach's shared island unit. That has been a hugely positive initiative. Others have welcomed it too.

Other welcome initiatives are examining some of the practical issues involved. Many people are already talking about this. In the context of the presidential election, it is absolutely right that we are talking now about the need to ensure franchise is extended in future elections. This is a critical question for people North of the Border as well as South. We have seen discussion of the Irish language, how that can be reclaimed for all our benefit. We have seen a huge outpouring from a younger generation and a renewal of interest in the Irish language, with Kneecap and other groups making the Irish language an integral part of their work and their music. That is hugely positive. The new British ambassador to Ireland has made a very solid effort to learn ár dteanga in advance of taking office, which is also welcome. There are other ways in which we see a new focus on unity. Environmental issues are substantially not devolved, yet when it comes to the condition of Lough Neagh, the exploitation of the Sperrins mine and other natural resources, we must deal with the material reality that we share a landmass and that environmental concerns know no borders.

Regardless of national identity, we are lucky on this island to have so many people and communities who are interested in these issues and really want to see them explored further in advance of any referendum. Finally, we must recognise that many people will vote in a unity referendum on issues of identity, but others, of course, will vote on economic and social issues. As always, as a socialist, it is class and economics which will be hugely determinative of this process of unification, notwithstanding the importance of identity and identities. The obvious issues of symbolism regarding anthems and flags can dominate debate, but there will be really challenging questions on economic and social issues that require deliberation in advance. How will we deal with the economics of the new arrangements? What will our housing, health and education systems look like? We can talk about a new Ireland but we have to acknowledge that it will be built on the foundations of our current systems, where far too few of our institutions operate on a cross-Border basis. I do a lot of work with Waterways Ireland because of the Grand Canal running through my constituency. It is one of the few all-island public entities that has such an important impact on the everyday lives of so many citizens living along the canals and inland waterways.

When we dream of a new Ireland, a fair and equal Ireland, a reunited Ireland, we must be realistic about our current infrastructure which is inadequate to meet the real needs of communities on so many fronts, including the cost of living crisis, the housing crisis, childcare and climate. This infrastructure in this jurisdiction has suffered from the hegemony of the two-party system of the past century. We often see those who are termed "soft unionists" looking at our health system and at the price of a house here in Dublin or the price of rent in any of our cities, and asking of those of us advocating unity what is in it for them and can they afford this. It is a reasonable question and one that those in government who aspire to a united Ireland must prepare to answer.

In conclusion, I welcome this motion. It does not chart a blueprint for unity. It lacks detail.

However, it does set out some of the key processes that will need to be undertaken in order to achieve what I think we all have said we want to see, which is a united Ireland. Only through open dialogue and through debate on motions like this will we tease out the real anxieties, the concerns and the aspirations that communities on this island share. This cannot remain an academic debate. I urge the Government to act on this motion and take the preparatory steps necessary.

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