Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate. It has been 27 years since the Good Friday Agreement was endorsed, north and south, and over 100 years since partition. A lot of us at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, if we are being honest, were reluctant supporters of it. I will read out one line in it. "The Government [meaning the British Government] of Ireland Act 1920 is repealed; and this Act shall have effect notwithstanding any other previous enactment." That line in an annexe to the document was the thing that tilted it for me, the fact that Britain was prepared to relinquish its claim to the North if the majority of people, north and south, in a referendum decided on a united Ireland. That line was key.

It has been over 100 years since partition. Connolly predicted "a carnival of reaction", and how correct he was. Two reactionary states is exactly what we got: one Orange state and one southern State that was a narrow, clerical State. The Good Friday Agreement provided for national reunification of the territory. It is time we stepped up a gear. Preparations need to begin, and winning support and planning for reunification need to be given a new importance, not just by the Government but by all of us. Partition failed. The North is a failed political entity. We have managed to circle a square for now and it trundles along, but it is not really a successful political entity. It is a failed military project on behalf of Britain - that failed as well - and a failed economic entity because it cannot survive on its own. The British Government's actions caused division and conflict and retarded the economic and political development of this island over the past 100 years.

We are in a better place now but we recognise that Ireland is a small island. There are 7 million people in a relatively small country on the north-western edge of Europe. That is a fact. It does not make sense to have it divided, with two separate systems operating back to back, with separate currencies, revenue systems, taxation, energy systems, transport, agriculture, education and so on. None of this ever made political or economic sense and definitely does not now, particularly with the arrival of Brexit. That was the game-changer and opened a lot of people's eyes in the North who would be soft unionists - or maybe even hard unionists. It created a multitude of trading and political problems. It exposed how ridiculous partition was. A hard border was just about avoided because of the joint efforts of the Opposition, the Government and a lot of other people in Europe and everywhere else who contributed to that and ensured we did not have a hard border. The Six Counties were retained in the EU Single Market - just about - for trade and movement of goods and services. That is welcome, but problems remain, including bureaucracy with trade, the two currencies, the two sets of standards, and British and EU revenue systems. We cannot get away from that. It does cause problems.

Some positive progress has been made since the Good Friday Agreement. The development of the all-Ireland economy is happening. As we speak, there are more and more economic connections between North and South, and that is good. The North-South Ministerial Council is meeting again, which is positive. There is co-operation on several matters such as infrastructure, health, energy and, now, domestic violence, which is overdue. We need to expand all that into other areas. We need to give agriculture environmental protection because environmental damage does not recognise any borders. There is education and there are a whole range of other areas. The economic logic demands that. On infrastructure, there are the plans to advance the A5 and the Ulster Canal, and Narrow Water Bridge is under way. All of that needs to move ahead apace, but other critical infrastructure now needs to be progressed, including rail connections. Most important of all is the North-South electricity interconnector. We cannot have it both ways, talking about a united Ireland and somehow obstructing or slowing down the interconnector between the North and South. That is critical if we want an all-Ireland energy system and energy market. That is long overdue and must happen as soon as possible.

The North-South implementation bodies - Waterways Ireland, the food safety board, InterTradeIreland, An Foras Teanga, the EU programmes implementation body and the Irish loughs and lights commission - are functioning. New ones need to be created. That was provided for in the Good Friday Agreement.

A reunited Ireland has to be a just and inclusive Ireland, a system based on social justice with proper public services, with workers' rights respected and disabled people included. Military neutrality has to be upheld, and we need to be a strong voice in Europe. We can be critical sometimes of Europe. It does not mean we are anti-European. We need an Ireland that looks out internationally, helping the people of Gaza and other parts of the world where people are suffering.

There are questions about whether an assembly should remain in the North. Those issues need to be discussed. Should Stormont still exist? Perhaps it should. Maybe that needs to be worked into this. How would all that function? Those matters need to be considered.

Politically, in the North and the South, the ground is shifting. People in the North are more open to discussions about reunification, and that is within communities that were traditionally hostile to it. There is a growing demand within the nationalist community. The debate has changed in here. If I think back to when I came in here nearly 15 years ago, this debate would have been very different. I welcome that. Parties that would have been - I will not say lukewarm - maybe even stone-cold to the idea then are now able to discuss it. That is good and it shows progress. Most parties now see this as important.

The North-South implementation bodies, as I said, need to be expanded and further progress needs to be made there. The development of a national health system is really important and will be key. People in the North have a health system. I have a niece who works in it. There are problems with it. There are problems with the one here. There are strengths in both health systems too. They need to be harnessed and we need to create a proper Irish national health system.

We need to establish a citizens' assembly, civic forum, North-South forum or all-Ireland forum.

We need to move on the voting rights for presidential elections and, I believe, Seanad elections for people in the North. We need to tease out the practicalities of that. We need to identify opportunities and start planning for a referendum. We need to promote the debate and while doing that we need to respect other people's identities. The identity of unionists needs to be respect. We need to assure unionists of fairness in a 32-county reunited Ireland. We need to assure them in relation to political representation in a new 32-county Dáil. As I asked earlier, should Stormont still be there? Perhaps it should be. That is a discussion that needs to happen. We need to talk to those who are not yet convinced, North and South. We should not talk at them, like some parties do. We need to talk to them and listen to them.

The new President, Uachtarán nua, will have a key role in this. I believe Catherine Connolly will be the best one to do that. We need to get a referendum going within this decade. We need to start the plans and get them advanced for Irish unity. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.

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