Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Is maith an rud é go bhfuilimid ag labhairt faoin gceist seo inniu mar is ceist ríthábhachtach é ó thaobh todhchaí na tíre de agus an easpa dul chun cinn i gcomhthéacs an chonartha seo.

It is just over two years since we reached the New Decade, New Approach, NDNA, agreement which restored to full operation the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. This agreement was a very significant, shared achievement after three difficult years when these institutions did not operate. There are clear lessons from that period. We do not want that kind of hiatus to ever occur again but we need to acknowledge there are currently a number of challenging issues which are making it difficult to move forward and build on the progress made since the NDNA agreement.

Differences around legacy and dealing with the past, implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol and outstanding NDNA commitments, including on language and culture, continue to beset politics in Northern Ireland and relations on these islands. In recent months the North South Ministerial Council has not been able to meet due to the position taken by the DUP, based on its opposition to the protocol. This is really regrettable. No positive agenda is served by blocking practical North-South co-operation or by the breakdown of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. In fact, the contrary; it is a barrier to progress, co-operation and to pursuing the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to deliver prosperity peace and a fully healed society for Northern Ireland and across these islands.

We take seriously unionist concerns in relation to the protocol and we have consistently sought to listen to and engage with those concerns.

Only yesterday, I met with members of the Orange Order to discuss their perspectives and explain ours. Similarly, the European Union has listened closely to concerns in Northern Ireland and is working in good faith to minimise friction. The Commission has come forward with far-reaching proposals that comprehensively address the practical, genuine issues that matter most to citizens and businesses in Northern Ireland. Economic indicators are picking up the advantages to Northern Ireland of the protocol. This shows that it can be made to work for the benefit of all parts of the community.

It is positive to see that talks on the implementation of the protocol have resumed between the European Union and the United Kingdom, including recent meetings between the Commission Vice President Šefčovič and the UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss. We need to see substantive progress for the joint tangible solutions in the coming weeks.

At the heart of the New Era, New Approach agreement is a commitment to address the issues that are that are of importance to the people of Northern Ireland. Crucially, of course, it contains significant and vital commitments to address the legacy of the past. Just two days ago, I stood with the Bloody Sunday families and the people of Derry as we marked together the 50th anniversary of one of the darkest days we have seen on this island. It is a testament to the families and to the city of Derry that this anniversary was marked with such dignity and grace, with creativity and a message of hope for the future. It is a city that has endured too much loss and yet there is such resilience and hope abides. The Bloody Sunday families had to work tirelessly in the face of almost inconceivable injustice to finally have acknowledged what they had always known to be true: the deaths of their loved ones were unjustified and unjustifiable. As a result of their dignified and unflinching campaign history will record that truth.

The breakthrough of justice represented by the Saville report and by the apology of the British Prime Minister was not a breakthrough simply for the families or for the city or for one community. The struggle and the grief of the Bloody Sunday families is shared by countless families across these islands from all communities. I have been honoured to meet with grieving families from all communities and I will do so again later this week. I stood in Enniskillen on Remembrance Sunday in the same spirit of solidarity that as I did in Derry on Sunday last. Loss knows no boundary and nor should justice. Too many families have had spent decades in the tireless pursuit of truth and justice for those that have lost. Many have been met with barriers and brick walls, with silence. It is vital that we address the legacy of the Troubles and remove those barriers now for each one of those families that have been waiting too long. Their hope must be matched by our efforts.

In 2014, after a long and difficult period of negotiation, the two Governments and the parties in Northern Ireland concluded the Stormont House Agreement. The purpose of that agreement was to address amongst other issues, the legacy of the past and put in place a comprehensive framework that was based on the guiding principles of truth, justice, and reconciliation. Unfortunately, that comprehensive and balanced framework we agreed to has yet to be put in place. Last year, as we know, the United Kingdom Government published a command paper that represented a radical departure from the Stormont House Agreement. It set out a proposal for a statute of limitations which would see an end to criminal investigations and prosecutions for Troubles-related offences pre 1998, as well as ending inquests and civil litigation. It is essentially a proposal for an unconditional amnesty for those not yet convicted. This proposal was understandably met with deep concern and upset from victims and survivors and from civil society human rights organisations. Every party on this island, North and South, has strongly and has publicly opposed it. The Government has made it abundantly clear that United Kingdom proposals cannot be the basis of a way forward. To completely close off the avenue to justice for families is not only deeply unfair but it would also undermine both the rule of law and our shared work for deeper reconciliation. It would likely result in years of legal challenge and further hardship for families.

Each family deserves access to a process of justice and until that processes in place families and communities will campaign and have to fight through the courts. And as time passes, that burden has already been passed to new generations. That is not acceptable. The Government is engaged with the United Kingdom Government and the parties in Northern Ireland to seek a collective way forward on the issue. We will continue to do so. It is vital that we find an agreed approach that we could see implemented in both jurisdictions. It is also vital that any approach meets the legitimate needs of victims and survivors and also upholds our shared human rights obligations. We will also continue to urge the United Kingdom Government in the clearest terms against taking any unilateral action in this space. This is a message I have communicated directly to the Prime Minister and that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has underlined consistently in his engagements with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Crucially, in dealing with legacy, as with so many issues in Northern Ireland, only through partnership can we effect real and lasting progress.

As we emerge together, North and South, from the Covid pandemic, the need for North-South and east-west partnership is more pressing than ever. Yet there is a danger that as we move towards the assembly elections, positions will get more trenchant and the progress of recent years will be undermined. It is important that all the political parties keep to the promise of the New Decade, New Approach agreement, in committing with renewed vigour to governing in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland. That pledge is more relevant now than ever.

For our part, the Government, through the shared island initiative, is working for the future of the whole island in a positive, practical and ambitious way, engaging with all communities and traditions, to build consensus around the shared future underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. Through open and inclusive dialogue, practical and strategic North-South investments and new and innovative research, we are taking forward this initiative.

Backed by a shared island fund of €1 billion between now and the end of 2030, we are working to build a more connected, a more sustainable, and a more prosperous island for all. Through the shared island dialogue series, the Government is listening to people right across the island and ensuring the inclusion of under-represented voices on how we can better work together for a shared future.

There was an inspiring response last year, from civic representatives across all communities, regions and sectors. Patrick Kielty's excellent contribution in December sparked awareness and debate on these islands and beyond these shores. We are continuing and deepening the shared island conversation this year now that we can move to in-person and regional engagements.

Our approach is inclusive, constructive and forward-looking. The Government is working with ambition and unshakable political commitment for a shared, reconciled future for all on this island, founded on the Good Friday Agreement. However, without a comprehensive framework to address the legacy of the past, any healing and reconciliation will only be partial.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This is an important debate. The legacy of conflict on this island and how we address this chapter of our history is vital for the shared future that we want, a shared future committed to on all sides as part of the Good Friday Agreement. We cannot build an inclusive future on cracked foundations. That is why, as difficult as it is, we must have a comprehensive approach to the violence of the past. This must deliver as much as is possible for victims and survivors from both communities in both jurisdictions, and across these islands.

On Sunday, the Taoiseach and I travelled to Derry where we met the families of those who were killed on Bloody Sunday. We stood in solidarity with them as the city marked, with characteristic dignity and courage, the 50th anniversary of that terrible day. It was a fitting tribute to those whose lives were lost. The memory of that day continues to resonate across the island, as the story of the campaign that finally ensured the truth was brought into the light.

Experiences of the Bloody Sunday families, the Kingsmill families, the Birmingham families, the Dublin and Monaghan families and many others must drive us to find a better way forward. I have met regularly with families from all communities who lost loved ones in the conflict. They campaign with great determination but I am deeply conscious that with every year that passes the burden on their shoulders gets heavier and the struggle a little bit harder.

It was the need to provide a clear framework to meet the needs of victims and survivors that led to the Stormont House Agreement in 2014. That agreement envisaged the establishment of an independent historical investigations unit, as well as an independent commission for information recovery. It also importantly allowed for oral history initiatives and acknowledgement. Crucially, the agreement was built on the core principle of justice, truth and the rule of law.

In July last year the British Government published a command paper which proposed the introduction of a general statute of limitations - meaning an immediate end to criminal investigations, the removal of the prospect of prosecutions and the end of all judicial activity in relation to Troubles-related incidents, including current future civil cases and inquests. This proposal has understandably caused widespread hurt and anger. It is important to be absolutely clear this is not a proposal the Irish Government could ever support. I have given that message consistently to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach has conveyed it to Prime Minister Johnson also. We are completely clear in our position that it is only through a collective approach that we can hope to deal with legacy issues comprehensively and fairly and in a way that is acceptable to victims’ families. That has been conveyed also to our friends in the United States Congress and Administration and in the important forum of the Council of Europe.

At the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference held in June last year I agreed with the Secretary of State to begin a period of intensive engagement so that the political parties in Northern Ireland and the voices of victims could be centrally heard in finding an agreed way forward. That process ran throughout the summer and early autumn and engaged with a wide range of victims’ organisations, civil society, academics and those working to deliver the current legacy investigations. That engagement process made very clear the almost universal opposition to the idea of a statute of limitations in Northern Ireland. It was also evident that there was unanimous opposition to the UK statute of limitations proposal across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland. This rejection was confirmed in a motion in the Northern Ireland Assembly on 20 July. I am conscious also of the clearly expressed view of all parties in the Oireachtas, as reflected in a Seanad motion last November. That political and community consensus has been borne out in many conversations I have had, both formally and informally, with families and victims’ groups from all communities, including most recently in Derry on Sunday.

The UK proposals have also drawn significant international concern and been criticised by members of the US Congress as well as experts in the Council of Europe and the United Nations. However, the current situation of piecemeal and under-resourced investigations and prosecutions is also not working well enough. We see important breakthroughs such as the Ballymurphy inquest findings last year. We see important new information coming out such as the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland’s Operation Greenwich report that found collusive behaviours within the RUC in relation to a series of loyalist paramilitary murders from 1989 to 1993. However, the important ongoing efforts in place are uneven, and inadequate to the scale of the task. Thus, while making absolutely clear to the UK Government that we cannot and will not support an amnesty we have also remained open and ready to engage seriously with the UK Government to find a way forward. Unilateral action here cannot work but we know from decades of experience what is possible when we work in a partnership between both Governments and parties and stakeholders in Northern Ireland. Indeed, the New Decade, New Approach agreement is an example of what can be achieved when that spirit of partnership prevails. It took difficult compromises from all sides to reach that agreement. There were real political differences but there was also an end and a shared commitment to deliver. I was privileged to work with successive Secretaries of State and party leaders and officials across many challenging months and years but the reward was the restoration of the institutions and a restored voice for the people of Northern Ireland on the issues that impact their lives. The NDNA agreement set out a range of priorities for the Executive with respect to health, education, infrastructure, welfare, language and the sustainability of the institutions. Although Covid has undoubtedly presented an immense challenge and has rightly been the focus, progress nonetheless has been made across a range of some of those areas.

The pandemic also demonstrated the importance of having functioning political institutions able to respond and make vital decisions to protect people when necessary. For our part, the Government also made a series of commitments alongside the NDNA agreement focused on working with the Executive through the North-South Ministerial Council to deliver projects that benefit people across this island. Significant progress has been made with projects such as the Narrow Water Bridge and the Ulster Canal. An expanded reconciliation fund and the newly agreed EU PEACE PLUS programme will continue to support organisations North and South in delivering vital work within communities.

Another key component of the NDNA agreement was of course language and identity. It is welcome that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has committed to introducing a package of legislation in Westminster to enact what was agreed by all parties, in support of linguistic diversity and cultural expression in Northern Ireland. We would certainly welcome dates on when that legislation would be brought forward.

There is, of course, much more that needs to be said on all of these important issues and I look forward to the contributions of colleagues and to responding at the conclusion of this debate. As a final point on legacy, we want to continue to try to build consensus between political parties, between both Governments and, most importantly, with groups that are representing victims and their families. The status quois not working. The structures are under-resourced and families are not getting the truth that they deserve and not getting the pathways to justice they rightly demand. The Stormont House Agreement was imperfect but it was a way forward that we all agreed to. If there is to be an alternative to that it needs to be agreed collectively by both Governments and by political parties and victims groups. We remain available and open to have that discussion but in reality, given the political timelines in Northern Ireland, the time in which to do this is short. The Taoiseach and myself have given a very clear sing to the British Government that we are willing to have his serious discussion but only in the context of trying to build consensus with political parties and victims’ groups. I look forward to hearing what other Deputies have to say.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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On Sunday, I had the privilege of accompanying the Bloody Sunday families as they walked the same route taken by those who marched for civil rights 50 years ago. I listened to the families recall those they lost and share their memories of that fateful day. Their pain is still very raw and their deep sense of injustice burns still. They say time heals all wounds but this has not been so for the families of the 14 innocent people shot down by the British Army on 30 January 1972. How could it? For them, the five decades since the murder of their loved ones at the hands of the parachute regiment have been dominated by British Government denial, cover-up and lies about what happened that day, thwarting at every turn the families’ quest for truth and justice. The dignity and determination of the Bloody Sunday families is mirrored by the courage and decency of the Ballymurphy families. They too have fought for 50 years to seek justice for the ten innocent civilians murdered by the same regiment in the west Belfast neighbourhood in August 1971.

The integrity of these families stands in stark contrast to shame of the current Tory Government. This government now seeks to push through an amnesty for all those who carried out acts of British state murder in Ireland, including those who perpetrated the atrocities of Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy, and for those agents who shot dead five innocent people on the Ormeau Road 30 years ago this week, for those who carried out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, for those British soldiers who in 1974 shot John Pat Cunningham in the back as he ran in fear from them and for those who murdered Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.

As we walked the roads of Derry in the January sunshine, members of the families not only conveyed their anger about Boris Johnson’s proposed amnesty, they also spoke of their feelings of being re-traumatised by what the British Government was attempting to do. They said this amnesty is not just an effort to rob them of the justice they have been seeking for their loved ones for a half a century but also a statement to the world that innocent people murdered by the British state during the conflict do not matter and never mattered.

This amnesty will be resisted and opposed by the Bloody Sunday families, the Ballymurphy families and others, with the same dignity and determination that has carried their fight for 50 years. Their loved ones counted and their lives mattered. Saoránaigh Éireannacha ab ea iad siúd a dúnmharaíodh ag stát na Breataine le linn an cheangail. Tá sé ríthábhachtach go mbeidh Rialtas na hÉireann dílis, glórach agus réamhghníomhach in aghaidh phardún na dTóraithe.

The families are buoyed by the fact that there is no support for this amnesty on this island. I believe it is important that we have an all-of-Oireachtas approach in challenging the British Government on how it deals with legacy. Only last month, we saw exposed again the depth of Britain's dirty war in Ireland. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland's report into Operation Greenwich revealed what so many have known for decades. Collusion between British forces and loyalist death squads was rife. It was a key component of British military strategy in Ireland. These were not random or ad hockillings but were conceived of, directed and orchestrated by the British state at the highest levels. It was a concentrated campaign of murder that targeted the nationalist community, human rights advocates and, indeed, Sinn Féin elected representatives and members. It was an operation targeting republicans and the embryonic peace process in Ireland. The report dealt with 19 killings and two attempted murders of Irish citizens by the British state yet, to this day, there has not been a comprehensive response from the Irish Government.

The Tory policy seeks to grant amnesty to those who perpetrated these murders. Is é an rud is tábhachtaí ar féidir linn a dhéanamh anois ná na meicníochtaí oidhreachta a d’aontaigh Rialtas na Breataine, Rialtas na hÉireann agus na páirtithe polaitíochta ag Teach Stormont i 2014 a chosaint go diongbháilte. The Stormont House Agreement is central to dealing with legacy. It ensures that victims of the conflict have access to agreed mechanisms for delivering truth and justice. These mechanisms are grounded in a human rights approach and best international practice. Provisions include the establishment of a historic enquiries unit, an independent commission on information retrieval, an oral history archive and the creation of an implementation and reconciliation group. The agreement preserves the right of victims of the conflict, and their families, to pursue justice through the courts, a right the proposed British amnesty seeks to shut down.

The British Government committed to implementing the Stormont House proposals within the first 100 days of the New Decade, New Approach agreement. So much for that. Two years on, not alone has Boris Johnson failed to honour this commitment, he has unilaterally pressed forward with legislation that undermines the Stormont mechanisms, replacing them with a self-serving, politically motivated amnesty and citing bogus national security concerns. Far from focusing on the need for truth and reconciliation, and building a new future for all, the Tory government seeks to destabilise the work of peacebuilding and new beginnings in Ireland. The British Prime Minister, in a reckless move, has cast aside the trust, good faith and political integrity that underpinned the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent accords. He chooses belligerence, Machiavellianism and downright disrespect of all those who suffered at the hands of British forces and their agents.

I have always said that making agreements is important, but keeping them is all the more so. Caithfidh Rialtas na Breataine dul i ngleic lena gcuid oibleagáidí. Caithfidh Boris Johnson stop a chur leis an bpardún seo. The Taoiseach's remarks at the weekend opposing the British amnesty are very welcome, but now the Government must apply concerted, consistent pressure on the British Government to bin the legislation and return in good faith to what was agreed at Stormont House. This must involve effort at all levels, but especially through the Taoiseach engaging Mr. Johnson directly. Time is of the essence. Family members of those killed are getting older. Sadly, some have gone to their graves having never seen justice.

The task of building peace, reconciliation and justice in Ireland is precious. It falls to each of us, those who truly wish to see a new Ireland, to step forward and do everything we can to see this vision grow and flourish. It falls to both governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement - the people’s agreement - to never take that responsibility lightly. Dealing with legacy issues is important to shaping our future. It is not about settling old scores, winning or losing or wading into the deep, muddy waters of blame. It has to be about healing, it has to be about ending divisions that have held back our country and it has to be about truth and justice. These must be the foundations of the new future for our people, regardless of background or identity.

Building an Ireland in which every person can lead a happy and prosperous life, free from discrimination and inequality, must be our goal and guiding light. Understanding the past, healing from the past and opening the gates of justice that others seek to slam shut are foremost responsibilities of political leadership. In times such as these, when we are faced with challenges and barriers, history is made and the future is shaped. We must commit everything to ensure we never again see the dark days of the past and move forward in the belief that no matter our backgrounds, no matter our identities and no matter the journey we have travelled to this point, we can reconcile, heal divisions and build our future together on foundations of truth and justice.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I firmly believe that if we are allowed to follow the thread of state violence, be that on the streets of Derry, Ballymurphy, Gresteel or Loughinisland, or any of the dozens of sites of state murder across the north, we will be able to uncover a direct link to the Cabinet table of the British Government. This the same British Government that is now attempting to introduce an amnesty for the state actors who have murdered in its name. They bring shame on the ideals of justice. The historical experience of British counter-insurgency has been an arc of development beginning with a blunt instrument used to bludgeon native populations into submission and later refined into an instrument of deadly and sophisticated state policy applied with lethal precision. This has been the pattern of state violence in the North from the 1970s right through to the 1990s.

In February 1971, the British appointed Harry Tuzo as general officer commanding, GOC, for the North, a man described by his own superiors as being unfit to hold a senior command in the British army. Tuzo was GOC during the Ballymurphy massacre, Bloody Sunday and internment. He also sought to have the Ulster Defence Association become a formal instrument of British army strategy on the ground in the North. The same loyalist groups formed the basis of the pseudo gangs of Brigadier Frank Kitson’s design, which murdered at the behest of the British Government for decades.

The brutality of the British dirty and secret war was to hit home in my town of Bray, when Bray man Fran O’Toole, along with other members of the Miami Showband, Tony Geraghty and Brian McCoy, were massacred by a loyalist gang accompanied by a British army officer. Today, Stephen Travers and Des Lee still have to live with the horror of that attack and the quest for truth and justice. The Miami Showband attack was intended as a cross-Border bombing. The bomb the British-led gang were attempting to place on the minibus was intended to explode after the band crossed into the South. The Miami Showband massacre can be placed alongside a series of high profile cross-Border attacks, including the bombing of Dublin and Monaghan and the murder of a Sinn Féin elected representative, Eddie Fullerton, in County Donegal.

The British understood the instrumental nature of violence better than anyone, which they used to maximum effect when they bombed Dublin on the eve of the Dáil vote on the introduction of the Offences against the State Act in order to influence public opinion.

Like other acts of state violence committed across the North, they were designed in the language of British counterinsurgency to inflict a moral lesson on the native population, to terrorise the public from supporting the IRA. British state violence was a performance of power designed to its maximum effect on the psyche of the public. Our primary concern must be for the victims of violence. There have been many victims on all sides. Today, we are looking at the impact on the victims of state violence. I pay tribute to all victims, the survivors and their families. I applaud their search for truth and justice. This search must continue with the support of this House. There can be no fitting legacy to the conflict that took place in the North until the full extent of the British state's role in orchestrating violence against the civilian population is laid bare. History and experience inform us that this will be no easy task, but we have no choice. Trust must sit at the very heart of the continuing efforts of truth and reconciliation for there cannot be justice without truth.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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Last weekend marked 50 years since the terrible slaughter of Bloody Sunday, a day nobody will ever forget. Having learned about it as we grew up or through various different formats, it is a day that will be always etched in our memories. On behalf of the Labour Party, my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, laid a wreath in Derry on Sunday. The day's events were a powerful and moving ceremony for all those who were killed and injured.

Despite half a century having passed, the impact of that day is so raw. It is a date and a time that is pencilled into Irish history. When we talk about legacy, truth and reconciliation, it can be very hard for those of us more removed from the direct impact of the Troubles to really appreciate what is at stake. I was struck by the remarks of Kay Duddy at the weekend when she made the following simple request to the British Parachute Regiment:

Please put your hands up and say you did it, so we can lay our wee brother to rest. My wee brother, Jackie Duddy, has been buried for 50 years but up to this minute in time, he hasn’t been laid to rest.

That struck a chord with me.

It says an awful lot about the current approach of the Johnson Tory Government that its plans for a de factoamnesty, driven by the demands of his backbenchers and cheerleaders and not the people of Northern Ireland, have managed to unite all the political parties North and South against those proposals. It is a unique achievement. The proposed statute of limitations by banning all prosecutions for Troubles-related killings, other crimes, legacy inquests and civil cases up to 1988 will not address the truth and justice Kay Duddy and so many others seek. There are people on many sides who have been involved in atrocities that cannot be forgotten, left in limbo or wiped out because history does not get wiped out.

Last August, my colleague, Deputy Howlin, joined a cross-party gathering of Deputies and Senators and members of the main Northern Ireland political parties to meet with a cross-community group of victims' campaigners to make clear our views on the proposals from the UK Government. They signed a document rejecting the one-sided proposals from the British Government. These proposals ride roughshod over the concerns of families and survivors in both communities and will poison any efforts for a truth recovery process. This is a serious breach of the Stormont House Agreement of 2014, which was reaffirmed in New Decade, New Approach in January 2020.

The recent Supreme Court ruling that the PSNI was wrong not to investigate the cases of the hooded men in 2014 confirms once again the need for a pathway to justice for all victims of the Troubles. At the heart of New Decade, New Approach was the restoration of the Executive after three years. What people in Northern Ireland want is to see progress on public services and a decent and fair society. That is a shared goal North and South. As I said in November, the biggest priority for everyone on this island should be getting a home and medical treatment and providing for their children, whether they live in Eastwall, Dublin or east Belfast. The pandemic showed us the reality of the interconnectedness of this island and the importance of co-ordinating our approaches on vital public services such as healthcare, transport and social services. So many of the commitments in New Decade, New Approach have not yet been started never mind implemented. Whether it is the anti-poverty strategy, integrated education, waiting lists or climate action, too much time has been lost on this island.

One of the key outstanding issues is the Irish language Act. It was expected to be moved in Westminster in January but it has yet to progress. At this stage, we would all welcome if this issue was addressed once and for all. It has gone on way too long. It took Labour MPs in our sister party in Westminster to finally deal with the issues of abortion and marriage equality, but there are still delays to the roll-out of healthcare for women with only partial services in many health trusts. Parties such as the DUP continue to try to roll that back, most recently in December. Unfortunately, Sinn Féin also abstained at one point on that Bill. Work on an integrated society and integrated education has hardly moved an inch. One of the reforms of New Decade, New Approach was to ensure that Northern Ireland could never again go three years without an Executive in place. The current brinkmanship and political games from, in particular, the DUP in regard to the protocol and future Executive is, sadly, all too familiar and, dare I say it, at this stage boring. Once again, they are trying to weaponise protocol checks at ports. The commitment to sustainable institutions is hardly enhanced by threats by the DUP to pull its Ministers out of the Northern Ireland Executive and failures to commit to a new Executive after the next elections. We all want the institutions set up by the Good Friday Agreement to succeed, but with the Assembly elections due in May, it is inevitable now that efforts to seek electoral advantage will take precedence over delivery of New Decade, New Approach. It is the worst of politics, unfortunately, at a time when we need politics the most.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The legacy of the Troubles continues to impact on so many families and communities across this island and beyond as they continue, rightly, to seek truth and justice for their loved ones. The issue has been at the forefront of all our minds in recent days as the events marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday took place in Derry. It was an emotional moment across the island and beyond as so many reflected on the terrible day, the bitter legacy and the history that it shaped. We were all struck by the collective determination of the people of Derry, in particular the families, to remember the 14 people who died and those injured on the day, as well as all victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

At this particular time, our thoughts are with the people of Derry and, in particular, the families impacted by Bloody Sunday, but as stated by the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, as everyone knows only too well, there are many hundreds of families across these islands whose daily lives continue to be impacted by that painful legacy. For anyone who lost a loved one and has to continue to campaign on his or her behalf to uncover the truth of what happened or for any measure of justice, the decades that have passed have not lessened the heartbreak. The wounds have not been allowed to heal. On their behalf, it is incumbent on us, as we work for real, lasting reconciliation on this island, to establish a clear and open legacy process that meets the needs of victims. The Stormont House Agreement gave us such a process. It sets out a path, a framework to guide us, as agreed by the British and Irish Governments and the parties in Northern Ireland. It is incumbent on all of us to see that framework implemented. It is an obligation of us all to see that framework implemented. It is clear that the UK proposals on a statute of limitations do not have the support of victims.

They do not have the support of parties in Northern Ireland and they have united this House as well. They have caused grave concern to international human rights bodies. They are without international precedent. They would, if introduced, be subject to years of well-founded legal challenge and the cause of even greater hardship and pain for yet another generation. They cannot be the way forward.

We have consistently said we are ready to engage with concerns or issues with the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement but any such changes must be discussed and agreed by the parties and both Governments. The Government is always committed, as was the case at the time of the Stormont House Agreement, to fully play our part in the collective effort to deliver for the legitimate needs of victims and survivors across both jurisdictions and for society as a whole.

With respect to New Decade, New Approach, the restoration of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement was a significant achievement. As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, we must do all we can to work for stability in the period ahead. As has been said, there have been challenges, which include issues around legacy, language, identity and Brexit, but there has also been real progress. It is clear that these and other challenges are best met when the institutions that allow for debate, dialogue and co-operation are functioning well for the benefit of the people and the economic and social progress of Northern Ireland. Moreover, the North-South institutions are a core part of the structures created by the Good Friday Agreement and are essential to allow for the Administrations on the island to work together to deliver real benefits for citizens on both sides of the Border. The important work of the North-South Ministerial Council is not currently proceeding as it should. That is deeply regrettable, particularly at a time when we need to focus on supporting communities and businesses across the island to recover from the pandemic. It is best that we work together to do that work on behalf of the people and all of this island. As was said by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, we know what is possible when we work together in a spirit of genuine partnership and with determination, both North and South, and between the two Governments.

For our part, we will continue to work for a brighter, more peaceful and prosperous future for everyone across this island. We will continue to play our part. We should also remind ourselves and everybody else that with all of the discussion of the statute of limitations the British are proposing, there is no statute of limitations in this jurisdiction whatever. Even for an old crime for which justice is demanded, anybody with information should go to the Garda. The Garda will look at the evidence and continue investigations. A number of older files are still open in the Garda. We should always remind ourselves of that in this jurisdiction while continuing to keep the pressure on the British Government to comply with obligations to which it has submitted.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad of the opportunity to contribute to these important statements on such important issues. Over the past 12 or 18 months, I have asked the Taoiseach on a number of occasions in this House if the Government would ensure that in every communication, both verbal and written, with the British Government it reiterates the total opposition of the people of this country to the proposed amnesty. It is an amnesty for murderers, be they state forces or people from paramilitary organisations. That is totally unacceptable and I am glad the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, reiterated that clearly in their earlier contributions. I was glad the Taoiseach took the opportunity in Derry on Sunday to state the Government's outright opposition, and that of the Oireachtas and people of this island, to any such proposal. No way is the idea of an amnesty for murderers acceptable. Under no circumstances should it be acceptable in any democratic country. Introducing such a proposal means the British Government wants to put an end to all investigations. Imagine a Government proposing to close down existing investigations and give up on whatever chance there is of getting the truth.

I have, over the years, dealt with many families who have, unfortunately, lost loves ones and close family members, and nobody has ever been brought to justice for those heinous crimes inflicted on innocent people. All those individuals, families and groups with whom I have engaged over the years act with grace and dignity in campaigning to get the truth. They are not out for revenge; they are seeking the truth. That is the message that comes across to all of us who engage with such families and individuals. Imagine a Government putting forward a proposal to close down all investigations when there are families and individuals who have campaigned for decades to try to get the truth about what happened to their loved ones on those fatal and tragic occasions. It is absolutely appalling. We would be jumping up and down if some state in Latin America made such a proposal. I am glad of the communications of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, at departmental and ministerial level, and the communications of the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach has told us clearly in this House on numerous occasions that he has conveyed those points clearly to Mr. Johnson.

I was struck by an article in the Derry Journal at the weekend. It was written by Colum Eastwood, MP for Derry, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of that awful and tragic day in Derry. It stated:

The world knows what happened on the streets of Derry on January 30, 1972. Faced with peaceful civil rights demonstrators standing against institutional discrimination which had denied them, their parents and their children the same opportunities in housing, voting and jobs that others had, the British Army responded by indiscriminately murdering 14 unarmed men and children. Fourteen people, six of them children, went out without so much as a stone in their hands to demonstrate their strong and peaceful opposition to the oppression visited upon our communities by a state steeped in sectarianism and they didn’t come home.

It went on to state, "And, now with clear plans to prevent the investigation or prosecution of historic offences, this British Government is launching a full scale assault on victims and survivors across our society." I always recall the comment of John Hume after those awful murders on that day 50 years ago. He described the soldiers as "uniformed murderers". He was a man who campaigned for decades and was a champion of peace in our land. He aptly said it all with that particular phrase.

The Minister will recall the many exchanges we have had in this House over the years about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. I know the Minister and his predecessors of all political parties have consistently raised with the British Government the need to ensure a full and comprehensive investigation into those awful bombings on that day in 1974. There were unanimous requests in this House in 2008, 2011 and 2016, as I recall, that called on the British Government to ensure an independent legal person would be given access to all files and papers pertaining to those bombings. Sadly, the British Government has not responded to the request of the sovereign Parliament of a neighbour. Those motions rightly called on the British Government to allow access for an independent international judicial figure to all original documents relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, as well as the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973, the bombings of Kay's Tavern in Dundalk and the murder of Seamus Ludlow. Sadly, Seamus's brother, Kevin, passed away in my home county a few months ago. He said to me at one stage that he would go to his grave without the truth about the murder of his brother.

Before the Dáil rose for Christmas, I again raised the terrible bombing in my home area of Belturbet, County Cavan, on 28 December 1972 when two teenagers, Geraldine O'Reilly and Patrick Stanley, were killed. There is now clear evidence that the bomb was brought across the Border from Fermanagh and planted in Belturbet. Two young people were killed. They were innocent teenagers. Many others were injured that night. There has never been a proper, full and comprehensive investigation into those murders in either Northern Ireland or Britain. I went to Belturbet, as I do on an annual basis, and said a prayer at the monument to Geraldine and Patrick. Last December was the 49th anniversary of those murders. Here we are, half a century later, and nobody has been brought to justice and nobody has got the truth. I said to the Taoiseach privately a week or so ago that the anger, worry and concern of families are not abating. The grief is getting more intense. We are all getting older and the years are going by. Sadly, many families fear they will go to their eternal reward without ever getting the truth. These are issues to which the Government must continue to attach the utmost importance. We must do everything to support the families of those victims who are gone.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Operation Greenwich investigation and the report that flows from it, which was made public by the police ombudsman in the North, are absolutely damning. If the Minister has not read through the report, I ask that he do so. I will focus on one individual identified as "Person K". When one reads through the report, it is absolutely astonishing that Person K was never brought to justice for that person's central involvement in at least 17 murders and seven attempted murders.

Deputy Brendan Smith referred to a number of bombings in this State. That puts a focus on what is missing from our peace process. When the Good Friday Agreement took place, as the Minister well remembers, the IRA and loyalists - the protagonists on this island - accepted responsibility and conveyed their regrets for the hurt and pain they had inflicted during the conflict. What was missing, however, was the central role of the British state in that conflict, right through from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s.

One case that is deeply personal to me is that of Councillor Eddie Fullerton. Eddie was a personal hero of mine. I was a teenager when he was taken away from us. His family have campaigned tirelessly for justice for the last 30 years. In 2006, they made a complaint to the police ombudsman in the North. Seven years later, the then ombudsman, Dr. Michael Maguire, said that the issues he and his team had uncovered in the re-examination of Councillor Eddie Fullerton's assassination and murder had thrown up wider issues that he wanted to investigate. He asked the family if they would hold back on the interim report and wait until the publication of a final report. It was incredibly gracious of the family, particularly Eddie's widow Dinah who would have been in her 70s at that stage, that they did so.

If we fast forward to recent weeks, more than 15 years after the family's original complaint to the ombudsman, we end up with this damning report. It is a tribute to the Fullerton family in particular, but also all the other families. It deals with 19 murders between 1989 and 1993.

I want to talk about Person K. This person, whose identity is known to me and, more importantly, the families and their legal representatives is a mass murderer who was given a licence to kill by the British state. This person is closely identified with the murders of Gerard Casey, Councillor Eddie Fullerton, Thomas Donaghy, Danny Cassidy, Malachy Carey and the massacres at Castlerock and Greysteel. In the case of the murder of Malachy Carey, the person convicted as a getaway driver in that murder said he got the car from Person K. The getaway car was registered in Person K's name yet Person K was never arrested. That is what the ombudsman uncovered. Person K was at the scene of murder after murder and, again and again, was not brought to justice.

Person K gave an alibi for Torrens Knight, who admitted his responsibility for the Castlerock massacre and was also convicted of the Greysteel massacre. The alibi for Torrens Knight came from Person K. Another person, the brigadier of the UDA, also gave an alibi. Yet, after Torrens Knight admitted his role, they were never questioned or brought to justice.

The big one is the Greysteel massacre, however. One of those convicted for Greysteel identified Person K as overseeing the purchase of the car, supplying the weapons, making sure they got to carry out their dastardly deed. Person K's fingerprints were found on the holdall with the weapons used at Greysteel and the plastic bag. Again, Person K was not brought to justice.

I appeal to the Minister and his Department officials to examine this report deeply, particularly Person K, a mass murderer with a licence to kill. He must be brought to justice.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I will begin by acknowledging that although many of the events I will speak of happened a mere couple of hours up the road, I find it difficult to relate to them because I was 11 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. I never had to march with my family to seek justice from state forces. The bombs had grown silent by the time I would have been old enough to hear them. The peace was hard fought for and we should cherish and fight for it every day of our lives.

I first acknowledge that last Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. It was a day of mourning and a time to reflect and think about what happened on that fateful day and the victims, and to demonstrate solidarity with the survivors, their loved ones and a community that still hurts so much despite five decades having passed. On 30 January 1972, some 20,000 people came together in Derry to protest against the mass arrest and internment of Catholic men and women across Northern Ireland and protest for their rights. Families, community groups and local people came together to demand an end to imprisonment without trial. It was hoped that a large collective action could bring about change. Days before, a protest plan was put in place. People were determined to have their voices heard. They were resolute and the march went ahead.

We have all watched the footage of that fateful day, which was caught by both Irish and British journalists who were present on the streets. We have heard the testimonies of those who watched friends and family members fleeing and then falling. We saw the bloody handkerchief in the hands of a priest who was trying to get those who were shot to safety. Twenty-six unarmed and innocent people were shot by the British Army that day, 14 of whom were killed. They were shot from behind and while trying to help the injured. They died while being blocked from getting to hospitals for urgent medical care. There are so many witness testimonies. It was quite simply horrific.

To add to the grief and trauma, we watched as a Tory narrative was constructed and is now being reconstructed to cover up and protect individual soldiers, try to prevent justice, infer that the crowd brought it on themselves and create a narrative that the soldiers believed the crowd was armed and dangerous, yet not one British soldier was shot on that day. Those same Tories who created that narrative now want amnesty for soldiers who shot innocent people in cold blood. That is not amnesty. That is an attempt at a state cover-up. It is the opposite of justice. I welcome the fact that across this Chamber Deputies will oppose that as vociferously as we can.

We also remember the Ballymurphy massacre in west Belfast, which took place just six months before Bloody Sunday as a result of British soldiers rounding up people to intern. Eleven people died in all, including a priest and a mother of eight children. This was a dark day for the entire island. It must be said that if there had been truth and accountability at that moment in Ballymurphy, perhaps what happened in Derry could have been prevented.

Of course, every single day of the year is an anniversary of another atrocity, another killing, and of families and communities torn apart by violence and hate. More than 3,700 people were killed during the Troubles and almost 48,000 were injured. The Good Friday Agreement came to pass in 1998 and, in many ways, transformed this island. Almost 24 years after this historic agreement came into being, there are still many people who have been denied access to truth, accountability, justice, safety and the process of reconciliation.

Families deserve to know the whole facts about what happened either to them or their loved ones. We must acknowledge the intergenerational pain and trauma still held by so many families across this island. Without that, there is no pathway to healing to repair broken relationships or move past the hurt. Families desperately want and need truth, empathy, accountability and justice. The process of peace cannot move forward without this, and peace is a process.

Today, people in the North of Ireland are being denied access to economic opportunity, social mobility and educational attainment. Some 17% of all people living in Northern Ireland are living in relative income poverty. Indeed, 17% of all children, 14% of pensioners and 11% of the working age population live in absolute poverty. There is no peace in poverty.

Working-class communities are underfunded. The fact that no anti-poverty strategy has been adopted to help improve the lives of people from all communities is damning. When a society emerges from conflict, that violence leaves a stain. That violence is still present and manifests itself in a number of ways.

Another important point to make about the future of the North of Ireland is the need to recognise that there are more than just two communities in Northern Ireland. We have seen the grassroots community organising by feminists, young people, civil society groups, community networks, the working class, LGBTQI and non-religious groups, to name but a few, seeking rights for abortion, the ending of religious segregation of all children in schools, marriage equality, an end to poverty, improved housing conditions and a place at the table when the future of the island is being discussed and decided upon.

We have a responsibility in this House. We watch each day in this House as leaders clash, insults are slung and words are used as pawns in a game and battle to have the final say. People watch these antics. Most of them are exhausted from seeing the same Punch and Judy show, day in and day out. Our peace is a process and it is a precious thing. It is delicate and it needs care and attention. It is not a hot potato to throw around to score points or make headlines. We must treat it with the respect and time that it deserves.

We often talk in this Chamber of the idea of what constitutes a republic. Many of us talk about being republicans in our outlook. In a republic, in a shared island, we do not get to say we will not speak to people across the Chamber or outside the Chamber. That does not respect the wishes of the voters. We have an obligation to be tolerant of each other and others' views and of what it means to live in a Republic. Parliamentary debate should be robust. We should argue vociferously about taxation, expenditure and policy direction. We should hold each other to account when our behaviour does not meet standards. However, we should not go beyond that and too often in this Chamber, we do that. We personalise issues and get into cleavages when we do not need to. If we can take any lesson from the Good Friday Agreement, it is that it brought political actors into the State and into the Republic. That should be respected.

The 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday gives us an opportunity to think about how far we have come and consider where we are going and how we will get there. We simply cannot move forward until we fully recognise and understand our past and know what has shaped us and our values, cultures, differences and conflicts. Only then can we move forward.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I very much welcome this debate. In particular, I welcome the consensus on all sides of this House on legacy issues in Northern Ireland and the New Decade, New Approach agreement. We all agree on rejecting the British Government proposals. Unilateral action on this most sensitive of issues is an impediment to reconciliation. Indeed, it is totally divisive. If we stand firm, which we do, and reject any of the possibilities of amnesties or statutes of limitations, that will be the way forward for us in the South and also for the North given that the Northern Assembly has also unanimously agreed that these proposals should not proceed.

The Stormont House Agreement sets out a comprehensive set of measures to deal with legacy issues in a way that can meet the legitimate needs and expectations of victims and survivors. It supports closure and reconciliation for those communities that have been most affected by the Troubles. These measures must be victim-centred and victim-focused. It is critical that the historical investigations unit, which is part of the Stormont House Agreement, is fully implemented and given the power and resources to investigate legacy events.

In Fine Gael, we stand with the victims and the families who have lost loved ones during the Troubles. They must have access to truth and justice. Regardless of whether the perpetrators were British soldiers, republicans or loyalists, these people must be brought to justice. I am the Chair of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. We have met many people in the North and South. Meeting representatives of the Wave Trauma Centre and the families of the disappeared, one feels, touches and understands the pain and hurt that is there on all sides. We met Maria Lynskey, whose uncle Joe Lynskey was disappeared by the IRA in August 1972 and whose body has never been recovered. We met Dympna Kerr and Oliver McVeigh and talked and listened to them. When we looked in their eyes we saw their pain and hurt because their family member, Columba McVeigh, has never been found. It is appalling and it is a shame. We have to try to bring closure to this.

Deputy Brady spoke about his county. I can speak about County Louth. I live on the Border. Of the often evil deeds that were done in my county, and there were many during that period, the murder of Tom Oliver was appalling, disgraceful and shameful. To abduct Jean McConville, a mother of 14 children, murder her and bury her in an unmarked grave was an appalling evil act. What has happened in our country is shocking and appalling. It is unacceptable that there should be an amnesty for anybody who was involved.

The British Government under its present leadership is divisive in its policies towards Ireland. It has clearly shown this through Brexit and the protocols, and by leaning to one side only in the North rather than seeking to bring us all forward into a new, brighter shared island, which is what this Government and Parliament want. I believe the previous Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and John Major, fully and truly understood how to solve the problems in our country, work with all sides and engage everyone on this island to bring about a peaceful reconciliation after what has gone on for hundreds of years. We need to have peace on our island. We need a new Assembly election and I hope we will have an administration up there that works because apart from the legacy issues, the key issues are the economy of our island, North and South. This is about education, fighting disadvantage, working together and building a future that we can all agree on, regardless of our past.

I am old enough to have been around on Bloody Sunday. I marched in a parade the following day in Dublin. I saw the hundreds of thousands of people who came because there were shocked and horrified by what had happened. On Sunday, I went to Derry where I met some of the relatives who are still looking for closure. They will never get it while Soldier F is free to roam and walk about as he will. We have to get justice for all of those people. I have been to Ballymurphy and I have met the families there. Most of all, I have listened to people in the Wave Trauma Centre. I have spoken to people who lost family members in the Shankill Road bombing. It just goes on and on. We can all iterate and talk about these things. This will go on unless the British Government listens to what we are all saying on this island. Let us have a fair and due process and let everybody get closure and get peace.

To the Sinn Féin Deputies over there, we need the bodies of the disappeared, the three bodies which have not yet been found, which you murdered and buried in unmarked graves. We need those bodies to be brought forward for decent, Christian burial. The fact is that somebody had to bring them there. Somebody out there knows all about it. The challenge for those in Sinn Féin, who wish to sit on this side of the House and be in government leadership, is that they must make sure the disappeared are found and given a decent, Christian burial.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I, too, am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to these important statements today. They come at a moment of huge sensitivity for the island as we solemnly remember the victims of Bloody Sunday in Derry. It is also a sensitive time for the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and, it should be said, for the conduct of our co-guarantor of that agreement in relation to legacy and on the question of the protocol. I hope I will get to that issue.

I am also a member of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, which is chaired by my Fine Gael party colleague, Deputy O’Dowd. It is a privilege to be on that committee, to be joined by MPs and MLAs from Northern Ireland, and for us to have the benefit of experience and shared knowledge as we work through the various groups.

I wanted to mention three groups. I will start with the most important, namely, the victims and their families. Last weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the utterly offensive and indefensible murders of civilians in Derry. Their families and communities still feel the hurt to this day. They were mowed down by paratroopers acting with complete inhumanity, entirely outside every law of the land and any law of humanity. The victims’ names were besmirched following the event and members of the community who were left behind were interned. Bloody Sunday was among the darkest of many dark days in the Northern Ireland of the time.

The treatment of the Bloody Sunday families in the Widgery report and in the many years to follow continued the state-sponsored hurt and pain that are felt to this day. They are by no means the only ones. We met the Springhill and Ballymurphy families in November, whose pain, again, was all too raw but their experience was vindicated, at least, by the Ballymurphy inquest in May of last year.

The damaging and unhelpful proposals by the British Government to allow an amnesty and not to pursue these cases of justice have been widely rejected and criticised in this House and across Northern Ireland. I join that chorus of condemnation of these unacceptable proposals. All victims of violence and their families deserve justice. In contrast to the turn of the back and the close of the heart which, it seems, has been given by the British Government in its proposals on legacy, we want to turn towards victims, pay our respects to them and give our true recognition to those victims of every community, as my colleague Deputy O’Dowd said, in their search for justice.

In that vein, and again at their specific request, I, too, want to highlight the case of the families of the disappeared, whom the committee met in Belfast in November and again in the committee rooms in the Oireachtas in December. They would simply like to give their family member a Christian burial.

They have called, both privately in our meeting and publicly in our committee room, on members of Sinn Féin to do everything they can to help achieve that. These families have asked me and others to continue to raise this matter in the House and publicly while there is still some chance of recovering bodies from bogs, as we go into yet another spring. We also met with the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains. The members of that commission know that every spring counts and that every piece of information counts as they go through more and more bog, forest and territory with no recoveries. I reiterate the calls made at the committee and countless times before by Dympna and Oliver McVeigh, brother and sister of Columba, and Maria Lynskey, sister of Joe, that we use our voices in the Dáil to call again for help for these people, in their final years, to recover these bodies. They also deserve peace and their killers, like the killers in Derry, deserve no amnesty.

These are issues of the past, which persist into the hurt of today, but of course we also have to look at Northern Ireland today. Again we face challenges from the British Government with the protocol and its operation. British Government representatives in Dublin and elsewhere tell us privately about the difficulties of the protocol for business but very little about the opportunities for Northern Ireland and businesses there. We had the good fortune to meet the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce before Christmas and we asked its chief executive, Paul Clancy, about its members' experience of doing business in Northern Ireland, sector by sector in Derry, based on its survey data. The view of those members was that the protocol is working for them. There are some technical issues but the opportunity is bigger than any hindrance. They stated that their experience is replicated across Northern Ireland, according to conversations with their sister chamber groups. They say stability is needed but that they will make it work.

We also asked business leaders about the quality of the communication received from the British Government. We keep hearing about how everything is so difficult but we are not hearing anything about the opportunities created by the unique circumstances of the protocol for Northern Ireland. Business leaders in Northern Ireland say that communication with the Executive is very good and straightforward and that they have very good access but that it is just not there with the British Government, either in terms of accessibility or quality. They stated at the committee: "... there are other priorities, as it were, with regard to what is going on either in England, Scotland or Wales rather than what is happening in Northern Ireland." That is their view. I highlight this because we cannot continue to neglect these issues or fail to call out the conduct of the British Government on all these matters.

On the future, we are a short while away from the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Though we have had great stability and good recovery in those 25 years, there is so much work left to be done for true reconciliation and the enhancement of mutual trust and understanding between communities. To that end, last week we had the good fortune to meet representatives of the Integrated Education Fund, IEF. There is so much work yet to be done. Paul Collins from the IEF described the current system as one that creates a group of young people: " ... divided into two tribes, who have no knowledge of the other." He told us the story of two tiny neighbourhood friends walking down the lane, with one turning to the right and one to the left as they went to their separate schools to begin their division into separate identities, at just aged four.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Reconciliation, peace-building and looking at the legacies of the past is a problem for everywhere in the world where there has been conflict, whether that be Ireland, South Africa or wherever else. There are always issues and difficulties. In 2014 that was recognised and the Stormont House Agreement was agreed by everyone, including both Governments and all the parties in the North as the process for going forward. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is quite correct that this agreement is the pathway to justice that was agreed by all. It is not perfect but it is the pathway that was agreed. The British Government has unilaterally set up a situation where it is prepared to turn its back on this agreement, which was the consequence of other agreements that failed in the past. It did not keep its word on the Good Friday Agreement or the St. Andrew's Agreement. Now we come to the Stormont House Agreement, and that is the problem we are facing again.

I recognise that this is very difficult work. For much of the 2000s I was engaged in this work myself. I sat in those rooms with people who had lost people. Without betraying anyone's confidence, I sat with one man whose brother, who was a member of the UDR, was killed by the IRA in a bomb explosion. He spoke of his hurt and pain and everything his family went through. Others in the room had similar experiences. There was an older woman who talked of her nephew who had been shot by loyalists with a UDR weapon, and the hurt and pain she felt.

There is a lot of whataboutery in those contexts. That is part of the process of reconciliation because you have to hear and understand each other. That is part of what was going on in those meetings and engagements and it went on for many years. However, we also have to understand that whataboutery does not get you very far. We have to actually find a process of healing. That is what the Stormont House Agreement was attempting to do. It was Ireland's attempt at a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation process. It was not perfect but it was an attempt at it and for the British Government to walk away from it is outrageous. I welcome that everyone in this Chamber recognises that and understands that we have to put maximum pressure on. The Minister said the Government is prepared to talk to everyone about the difficulties with the Stormont House Agreement and what changes may need to be made. We need to hold the line as firm as possible to ensure there are no changes made to it because that is what we agreed and it is the way forward.

There is a Bombay Street in Belfast. On one occasion, the lady I referred to talked about how two sons of hers, when they were quite young, went to a civil rights protest in a local town. After the protest their names were taken by the RUC and about a week later two cars pulled up on the street and local men got out and threatened them. They told the family, who were farmers living in an isolated rural area, that if they continued going to protests like that, they would have a Bombay Street at home. She said they kept their heads down for too long but that they are not prepared to keep them down anymore. That was people's experience and that is part of this reconciliation and truth-building process. It is not just about the things that happened but what that did to people, how it affected them, how it made them what they were and how, in some cases, it made them do terrible things to each other. We have to listen to all of that and we have to have a space to do it.

Of course there is wrong on all sides and of course there is right on all sides. However, there is a sense that we on this side of the Border can somehow stand up and be high and mighty about it and say both sides did terrible things and was it not awful and wash our hands of it. We in this State have a responsibility as well. Some 100 years ago, the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed. The signing of that treaty was the beginning of a conflict because it set up a discriminatory sectarian state in the North that was bound to go for conflict. Many years ago, I read Nelson Mandela's book in which he talked about his trial. He said that the people of South Africa looked for civil rights and peacefully marched for their right to have a place in the sun but the only response of their government toward them looking for their equal rights was a violent one. It was the very same in Derry on Bloody Sunday and it was the very same in these situations. If we are going to learn anything from the past we have to work together and we cannot leave anyone out. If we are going to work together, the British Government has to be part of that. It is as responsible as anyone else for what happened in the Six Counties and it is going to have to be part of the solution. It cannot walk away from any of these agreements and it certainly cannot walk away from the Stormont House Agreement. All of us recognise that we have a part to play but more than anyone else, the Minister has a huge part to play in holding the British Government to account and holding it to the Stormont House Agreement.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. There were a lot of us in Derry on Sunday. The People Before Profit Deputies attended the second demonstration in the afternoon while official Ireland, including the Minister, the Taoiseach, Deputy McDonald, etc., attended a morning demonstration. It was very good that official Ireland was represented at it and that we are unified in rejecting the idea of an amnesty. We left Creggan with tens of thousands of people and marched to Free Derry Corner. We listened to speeches from Kate Nash, whose brother was massacred on that day, from Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and from Eamonn McCann. The repeated theme of that demonstration was a call for the prosecution of General Sir Michael Jackson. Many people know the name Michael Jackson but they may not associate it with Bloody Sunday or, as mentioned earlier by Deputy McDonald, with the Ballymurphy massacre. General Michael Jackson was second in command on Bloody Sunday. Not only was he second in command on the day of that massacre, he was also central to creating a piece of fiction afterwards about the events of that day, which formed the basis of the failed Widgery tribunal. As well as being adjutant general on that day, he was subsequently promoted to head of the British Army and spent time in Iraq and Kosovo.

The British establishment always tries to portray the conflict in Ireland as some kind of war between two tribes and itself as the awkward piggy in the middle trying to keep us apart. However, Blood Sunday in particular shows that it arose from a cold-blooded decision by the British establishment to suppress the mass movement for civil rights, the result of which was absolute carnage throughout the North. The Parachute Regiment was sent to Derry, not to keep two warring factions apart, but to conduct a massacre and break up and intimidate a mass movement.

It was right that official Ireland was in Derry, but I put it to the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and the rest of this House that instead of us always looking to park these things, we should look first at where the fish rots from. It rots from the head. These commanders who gave the orders to shoot and then tried to scapegoat the soldiers have to be called to book. Today, I call on the Minister to echo the call from that demonstration, which left the Creggan and went to Free Derry Corner, to jail General Sir Michael Jackson and bring him to trial for both his lies and the orders he gave in Ballymurphy and, especially, in Derry on Bloody Sunday.

The conflict in Northern Ireland is not just about two warring factions. It increasingly shows that all sides in the North have things very much in common for which we must struggle. I marched behind a banner that said, "Class not creed. We shall overcome". I marched with people who have been out on strike for increases in pay because they worked in the NHS and with those fighting for full reproductive rights for women throughout the North, workers rights and climate justice. We have these issues in common in the South, as do both sides of what is called the traditional divide in the North.

That is why People Before Profit take the job of building a 32-county party that stands for neither orange or green, but the best traditions of James Connolly, for a working class that can liberate itself and unite to get rid of partition and the yoke of imperialism that has dominated our history for so long. I ask the Minister to come back on that call for the prosecution of General Sir Michael Jackson and rather than go after Soldiers F or G, to go to the top from where these orders came and to he who tried to cover it up by giving a list of lies to the Widgery tribunal.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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Does anyone seriously believe that the massacre of 14 unarmed civilians in Derry 50 years ago last weekend was merely down to rank-and-file soldiers losing control on the day? Three weeks before Bloody Sunday, Major General Robert Ford wrote: "I am coming to the conclusion that the minimum force necessary to achieve a restoration of law and order is to shoot selected ringleaders." The Tory Government in London, led by Edward Heath, did not remove Major General Ford from his position.

The prosecution of Soldier F may provide some form of justice and closure for the victims' families, as might prosecution of individual paramilitaries for heinous sectarian acts, such as those at Kingsmill and Loughinisland, for others. However, for genuine truth and justice to more fully prevail, investigation must be made into the role of those higher up the chain of command in the British state, such as General Mike Jackson, and those in leading roles in paramilitary organisations.

I have no confidence in the capacity of the State or sectarian politicians to subject their roles in the Troubles to real scrutiny. I do, however, have confidence in working class people to bring the truth to light. This could, for instance, take place through some form of wide-ranging inquiry into the Troubles made up of respected trade unionists, genuine community groups and human rights organisations.

When I addressed the House before Brexit, I warned there must be neither a land nor sea border post Brexit and that if there were either, there would be consequences, including the danger of an increase in sectarian tensions. We are beginning to see precisely such a scenario play out with regard to the sea border and I intend to return to this issue when I have a bit more time in the not-too-distant future.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy Richmond will share with Deputy Costello.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this extremely important and timely debate. Reconciliation on these islands will be built through a shared desire to move forward to brighter days, but to do that, we must ensure all commitments are met, especially those contained in New Decade, New Approach.

Despite this important agreement being reached not that long ago, many of its core promises simply are not being met. The continuing boycott of the North-South Ministerial Council and near daily threats to collapse Stormont is political posturing that merely hardens divisions and delivers nothing for anyone on this island.

With looming elections in Northern Ireland, it is disappointing that outdated rhetoric is once again being deployed and that the familiar bogeymen in Dublin and Brussels are being targeted. This short-term political play acting moves us further away from the reconciliation and prosperity sought by the vast majority from every tradition on this entire island and indeed, these islands. It is important, therefore, that all of us in this House and beyond continue to push for the full implementation of New Decade, New Approach.

Within New Decade, New Approach, we consider the commitments to truth and justice as central to delivering true reconciliation. Often, in that context, when we speak of the Troubles and Northern Ireland’s history, we hear some people say that we simply need to move on and forward and leave the past behind. However, as we were reminded this weekend in Derry, so many families do not have the luxury of simply moving on.

That there was a bomb scare in Derry city centre today, almost 25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, is a clear illustration of how much work is still left to be done and that so many people have to be brought into that process. Too many families who lost loved ones cannot just move on, especially at a time when they are being deprived the possibility of justice from the British Government or information from former paramilitaries that can at least give them closure.

Last year, the Seanad passed an all-party, cross-community motion to oppose the British Government’s de factoamnesty plans. I hope that we can also come together in this Chamber and jointly declare that there should be no amnesties in respect of offences committed in Northern Ireland. Time is no substitute for justice. The responsibilities and duties of the British Government are clear and they simply must be met.

Equally, there remains so many families who have been deprived of the right to afford their loved ones a proper Christian burial. It is not too late for those that know to come forward and put those like the family of Columba McVeigh out of their misery and afford them their closure and justice. There can be no hierarchy when it comes to suffering in the Troubles. There is an equal opportunity to right the wrongs of the past but it is, crucially, an equal responsibility. The disappeared, which was one of the cruellest and shameful atrocities of the Troubles, could still be put right.

There are brighter days ahead for this island, North and South, but we need genuine commitment from all parties to get to that point and to work through the difficulties that will move us towards genuine reconciliation. I can never pretend to truly appreciate the pain experienced by those families and individuals directly impacted by the atrocities that scarred our land during a dark period in our shared history, but I can promise that their pain will not be ignored nor their right to justice denied. I hope all of us in this Chamber can agree on and attempt to deliver this.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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One of the recurring themes when we talk about the legacy issues is the responsibility of the British Government to act. It does have a responsibility and I will get to it in a minute. However, we also have a responsibility here in Dublin. We are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement. As a result, we are co-guarantors of the bill of rights that has failed to be implemented; the reform of the petition of concern, which was agreed under the New Deal, New Approach agreement and has yet to be implemented and Acht na Gaeilge, which has yet to be implemented. We are their co-guarantors.

Of course, we are also the co-guarantors of the Independent Commission for Information Retrieval. This was the agreed mechanism for dealing with legacy issues. Obviously, it is complicated and needs legislation in Dublin and Westminster to happen, but over the years there have been many negotiations, agreements and details worked out. The British Government may have dragged its feet, but why do we have to wait for Britain?

Why do we not begin our own drafting? Why do we not at least begin our own pre-legislative scrutiny so that we can talk about what we want to achieve? We can get the experts in as part of that pre-legislative scrutiny, as we do with other Bills, to say what is needed, to reflect on how the legislation should look and to begin that conversation about how this will work and take one small step further away from it just being an agreement on paper. That then puts more moral responsibility and more pressure on the Government in London, and it is not sanctions. It is not aggressive moves, but simply saying that we are going ahead and we are a co-guarantor. Even something like the pre-legislative scrutiny of the legislation needed to implement the independent commission on information retrieval would be a bold step forward by us and a clear statement that we reject the British Government's proposed amnesty, the very foundation of it and all the logic behind it.

Ultimately, we need truth. The families who have lost people and who are suffering to this day need the truth. In years to come, my young daughter will be studying history books. Will she get the truth when she opens it up or will it just be more cover-ups and stories of collusion that are never fully investigated? Will it simply be the name soldier F or will it be his real name, which has been published, is out there and was named by Mr. Colum Eastwood MP on the floor of Westminster? Will those who are responsible for the crimes and the murders that are now covered up be featured and named and photographed in the book she comes to read in the future? Without truth we cannot have justice. Without justice we cannot have healing. The British Government's line that we should draw a line under the Troubles simply perverts truth, perverts justice and prevents healing. It flies in the face of everything the Good Friday Agreement was meant to achieve and it flies in the face of everything that the State is co-guarantor of.

The British Government has a strong responsibility to look at its own actions in recent times and right throughout the conflict that it has denied, covered up and sabotaged. We can talk about the Cory inquiry's hard drives being seized by MI5 and arson at the Stevens inquiry - all these deliberate attempts to cover up the truth - but I come back to us being co-guarantor and to asking what are we doing. Any movement we can take, no matter how small, on the issue of the independent commission on information retrieval will contribute to moving that on, to having that conversation about truth, justice and healing and to putting further pressure on the British Government to live up to its international commitments.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Families' quest for truth and justice is not a quest with an infinite amount of time. So many families who have had family members murdered due to British state collusion have seen the parents, partners, siblings and children of those killed pass away without the truth behind their loved ones' killings being known. There needs to be a sense of urgency about this.

This weekend marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Like the Minister, Deputy Coveney, I was in Derry to see the families walk the route their loved ones walked that day and one thing that struck me was that many family members who were walking that route were far too young to have been there that day.

Operation Greenwich dates from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and everyone affected at that time would now be in their 30s or older, and many now have children and grandchildren. All of those family members are affected by that trauma, the inter-generational trauma.

People have passed away but have passed on the baton for truth and justice to the next generation. Now we see grandchildren standing just as invested as those who were there on the day. The next generation are informed, educated and ready to continue the campaign for truth and justice.

The days of tea and sympathy are long gone and families are clear on this. People have rights under international law and it is time that they were met. The British state and the Irish State have obligations in this regard.

There is no longer any question as to the role of the British state in the killings of people in Ireland and the evidence of collusion by Britain is now irrefutable. We now have official Government reports which outline the role of collusion.

We have, from the report recently published, evidence that military intelligence of the British Government oversaw the importation of South African weapons to be used by loyalist paramilitary groups to kill nationalists, republicans and Catholics. Some of these weapons were used in the attack on mourners in Milltown Cemetery in 1988 where John Murray, Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh and Thomas McErlean were murdered as they defended other mourners and saved lives that day. The fact that these weapons were imported from South Africa, with British intelligence knowledge, and used in this way is grotesque.

This report also shockingly states that an assistant chief constable of the RUC, now deceased, was aware that the names of 250 Catholics that came from the British army were in the hands of the UDA. It also states that this assistant chief constable intervened to stop those people, whose names were passed to the UDA, getting a warning that their lives were in danger. Some of those 250 people were dead within months. Let the gravity of that sink in.

It is important to realise that when we hear media reports that this report shows the RUC did not pass on information, the reality of that is that people were dead within months. This was not simply a piece of information. This was people's lives, people who died and whose families’ lives were destroyed.

We are now awaiting the publishing of a report by the Police Ombudsman at the start of next week which will deal with the killings of Sinn Féin members, Pat McBride and Paddy Loughran, who were murdered 30 years ago this week in the Sinn Féin centre in Belfast along with Michael Dwyer, a constituent who was in the advice centre at that time.

This week also marks the 30th anniversary of the attack on the Ormeau Road bookies which killed five people and injured seven. The reason I mention both of these is because they will be dealt with in this report. That these families have to wait 30 years for information is absolutely horrific.

What we now know - something the people of Belfast, the people of Derry, the people of the North and the people whose families were killed by British state collusion knew all along - and that there is no denying is that collusion was policy. We saw that with de Silva and we see it in the 19 killings in Operation Greenwich. This was not a coincidence. This was not a few rotten apples. This was British Government policy.

I have faith because I have faith in the families' resilience and in their courage and I know that one day the truth will out but there is a responsibility on all of us to stand with these families, to stand up to the British Government and its proposals and amnesty and to make sure that truth and justice comes about.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The names of the boys and men who were murdered by the British military on the streets of Derry 50 years ago are: Patrick Doherty, 31, Gerald Donaghey, 17, Jackie Duddy, 17, Hugh Gilmour, 17, Michael Kelly, 17, Michael McDaid, 20, Kevin McElhinney. 17, Barney McGuigan, 41, Gerard McKinney, 35, William McKinney, 26, William Nash, 19, James Wray, 22 and John Young, 17, and John Johnston, 59. The murders of these peaceful civil rights campaigners changed the course of history forever. When a government murders its own citizens who are marching for equality in broad daylight, it becomes clear that the state itself is the problem.

Aontú was proud to join with the other political parties in laying wreaths in Derry on Saturday to remember these boys and men. It still surprises me - maybe it should not - that the emotion of what happened 50 years ago still catches me with the same intensity every single time I attend a commemoration in Derry.

Irish nationalists were discriminated against by the British state in terms of housing, jobs and civil rights, and when they campaigned on the streets, they were murdered by the British state. When they sought to peacefully change the situation, they were also murdered by the British state or censored or banned from the media.

Bloody Sunday was not an isolated incident. Indeed, it followed the Ballymurphy massacre, which happened in the previous August, where the same regiment of the British army murdered ten unarmed citizens. They were: Fr. Hugh Mullan, 38, Francis Quinn, 19, Daniel Teggart, 44, Joan Connolly, 44, Noel Phillips, 19, Joseph Murphy, 41, John Laverty, 20, Joseph Corr, 43, Edward Doherty, 31, and John McKerr, 49 - all murdered by the British state in Ireland.

Joan Connolly was a 44-year-old mother of eight. She was shot when she went to the aid of a young man, Noel Phillips, who himself had been shot and wounded by British soldiers. Joan was shot several times in the head and body and her injuries were so severe that part of her face was blown off. She bled to death because the British army prevented emergency medical attention from getting to her even though she cried out for hours. Her injuries were so horrific that her family struggled to identify her body, and they finally did so on the third attempt due only to the fact she had red hair. I am shocked that so few people in the South of Ireland know Joan's name. If we are honest with ourselves, one of the reasons her name is not widely known in this jurisdiction relates to the fact there has been very little political capital in her death. Her name is not thrown back and forth in this Chamber or on radio stations coming up to elections. Unfortunately, she is not known, because of her political value. It is a shocking situation.

In July 1972, five Catholics were murdered in the Springhill estate in west Belfast, again by the British army. After these murders took place, the British started to take international heat, tension and condemnation, so they changed strategy clearly and moved their murders to being undercover murders, in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. The Glenanne gang went on to murder 120 people in a small triangle between counties Armagh and Tyrone. The father of the deputy leader of Aontú, Denise Mullen, who is a councillor in Dungannon, was murdered in front of her when she was four years of age. They went after her mother in that house and shot a number of times at her, and she fled into the fields, leaving her daughter in the house. Her daughter had to remain there without any help from the emergency services for a number of hours because the emergency services were worried the house was booby-trapped. It is an incredible situation.

On Saturday, I took part in a programme with the Ancient Order of Hibernians in which we discussed Operation Greenwich. That report is incredible. It details the murders of Gerard Casey from Rasharkin; of Eddie Fullerton in Buncrana; of Patrick Shanaghan in Castlederg, County Tyrone; of Thomas Donaghy of Kilrea, County Derry; and of Bernard O'Hagan in Magharafelt; the attempted murder of James McCorriston in Coleraine; the murder of Daniel Cassidy in Kilrea, County Derry; the attempted murder of Patrick McErlean in Dunloy, County Antrim; the murder of Malachy Carey of Ballymoney; and the murders of Robert Dalrymple, James Kelly, James McKenna and Noel O'Kane at Castlerock, County Derry. It also discusses the murders of John Burns, Moira Duddy, Joseph McDermott, James Moore, John Moyne, Stephen Mullen and Karen Thompson in the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, County Derry. The eighth victim, Samuel Montgomery, died as a result of his injuries.

All these people were fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, and many of them would be alive today in Ireland if it were not for the actions of the British state. Some people feel this is history but most of these families live with this every day, either through the post-traumatic stress they experience or by seeing the perpetrators of those murders living in the same communities as them. Last year, Denise Mullen received a death threat from the man who murdered her father, and she has been driving around for a year looking in her side-view mirrors to see whether somebody is following her.

I attended the 50th anniversary of the Ballymurphy massacre in August. One sentence that was repeated over and over again from the stage by the relatives who were speaking was, very simply, that the British are trying to get away with murder. It is a phrase we hear so often in our lives, but the gravity of it is shocking when we see that is the actual effect the British are trying to achieve here. The murders of Irish people in Ireland by British soldiers were the actions of a rogue state. There were no proper investigations, evidence was destroyed, there were few or no convictions and there was no accountability. These were the actions of a rogue state. In many cases, the people who carried out these murders got promotions and achieved improved careers from the British state as a result of those acts. If we are really honest, this southern State on many occasions stood idly by when those murders happened. I often think of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the lacklustre investigation that happened on the part of the southern State at the time in respect of finding the perpetrators. Even today in this Chamber, much of what happened is met with whataboutery. Every single family who had a loved one murdered by whichever side over the past 50 years needs to find justice and truth and to have accountability, but the whataboutery that exists, as has been seen during this debate, shows that political capital is still alive and well in the context of this debate.

The British amnesty that has been sought reflects the actions of a rogue state. It is very important that both we, as a political group here, and the Government increase the urgency and the efforts to hold the British state to account with regard to this. The British signed the Good Friday Agreement and the Stormont House Agreement, which are international treaties. They have a responsibility under international law to adhere to those treaties and agreements, and I believe wholeheartedly that we are not doing enough work to pursue the British Government to ensure it upholds those treaties. In the names of all the people I mentioned, we must redouble our efforts to hold the perpetrators of those violent crimes to account.

Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I am sharing time with Deputies O'Connor and McAuliffe.

The 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday was marked on 30 January last. As we know, a march for civil rights in Northern Ireland took place in Derry that day. The participants marched for basic civil rights and equality, to be treated equally in a society where the minority were seen as second-class citizens by the government. The first battalion of the British army's parachute regiment opened fire on innocent civilians, killing 13 people on the day. This followed the killing of other innocent victims by the parachute regiment in Ballymurphy the previous August. These events cast a long shadow over politics in Northern Ireland and this remains evident to the present day. The hastily established Widgery inquiry found the soldiers had started firing only after they had come under attack, among other adverse findings. This was deeply offensive to the families of those killed or injured, but it demonstrates what the establishment in a so-called democratic state can do, if so minded, to arrive at a false and predetermined outcome.

The barrister David Burke, in his book published last year entitled Kitson's Irish War: Mastermind of the Dirty War in Ireland, outlines how Bloody Sunday and other killings of innocent civilians in Northern Ireland by British soldiers were part of a ruthless, dirty war that commenced in 1970, when brigadier Frank Kitson, a counterinsurgency veteran, was sent to Northern Ireland. Burke further outlines how Kitson organised a clandestine war against nationalists and ignored loyalist paramilitaries. How shocking is that?

The families of those who were murdered have campaigned for justice ever since. They have three basic demands, namely, a rejection of the Widgery report, an official acknowledgment of the victims' innocence and the prosecution of the soldiers involved on the day. They campaign tirelessly and have to date been successful in achieving two of their three objectives. The then British Prime Minister Tony Blair established the Saville inquiry in 1998. It totally exonerated the victims and placed the blame firmly on the British army. Subsequently, the then British Prime Minister David Cameron issued a state apology and expressed his deep sorry for what had happened. As we all know, however, the prosecution of the soldiers has, unfortunately, run into difficulty. The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland announced in 2019 that only one soldier, Soldier F, would be prosecuted, but this was dropped and the matter is now before the courts.

This brings me to the appalling and unilateral decision by the British Government to bring forward legislation to prohibit future prosecutions of military veterans and ex-paramilitaries for crimes related to the Troubles and to impose a statute of limitations on Troubles-era prosecutions.

This has been widely condemned, rightly so. It was condemned by the Taoiseach in Derry at the weekend, when he said the soldiers involved should face prosecution. It has been condemned by the political parties in Northern Ireland, by victims groups and their families, by several international human rights organisations, including the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights and the United Nations special rapporteur, by Michael Posner, US Assistant Secretary of State, and by the Committee on the Administration of Justice in Northern Ireland - the list goes on.

This move essentially overturns a crucial part of the 2014 Stormont House Agreement, which was agreed by the British and Irish Governments and the political parties in Northern Ireland. For example, a commitment was given to establish an independent historical investigations unit as part of this agreement. In July of last year, talks were initiated between the parties in Northern Ireland and all of the relevant stakeholders on dealing with the legacy of the past and implementing the provisions of the Stormont House Agreement. These talks should be ongoing and the Irish Government must continue to make known to the British Government its total opposition to these proposals.

I would also like to raise another issue in this context. A range of rights-based commitments have been made in Northern Ireland, starting with the Good Friday Agreement and right up to New Decade, New Approach. This is not happening fully. For example, there has been a failure to progress a bill of rights in Northern Ireland. These objectives would give human rights protections to the people of Northern Ireland. In New Decade, New Approach, a commitment was given to establish an ad hoccommittee on a bill of rights in Stormont but this has run into difficulty. Various proposals in this area are being obstructed in the Executive and the Assembly, using different veto mechanisms. This is very regrettable.

What all of this clearly indicates is that we need full implementation of all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements. All of us need to work at that - the British and Irish Governments, the parties in Northern Ireland and Ministers and parliamentarians in these islands, using the bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement, and civic society. We must rededicate ourselves to implementing all of the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement.

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to have an opportunity to make a statement on New Decade, New Approach. I was recently in Northern Ireland and I found it extraordinarily interesting getting the different perspectives of people in the Northern Ireland business community through the Ireland's Future event which I attended. I also found it extraordinarily interesting how deeply felt the frustrations are among ordinary people, often outside of political circles, from the engagement I have had with people. New Decade, New Approach enabled the restarting of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was also key.

As a parliamentarian in Dáil Éireann, here in the Republic of Ireland, while the goings-on in Northern Ireland politics are extraordinary complex and it would be unwise of me or anyone else here to underestimate those complexities, I find myself to a degree bemused at how often threats are put forward about pulling away from the Northern Ireland Assembly. That is no way for any political party to behave on an ongoing basis, but it continues to happen in Northern Ireland. I want to express that point, which may be welcome to some in Northern Ireland, but with many politicians elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, that case is often ignored. It is important for that to be put forward by a politician here in the Republic of Ireland.

Something else that I feel deeply passionate about is the future of Northern Ireland and where it is going to be in a decade or two decades time. What I want to see is the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and that the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic, as agreed through the Good Friday Agreement, have the opportunity eventually to vote on their own future and the future of this island. I feel very passionately about making sure that we enable that to happen. That is why the creation of the shared island unit is important in order to do a degree of work in regard to building relationships. As a state, we need to go a step further. As it stands, I feel hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Ireland are being denied the ability to live within the system that we have here in the Republic, which enables the pursuit of all opportunities, both economic and social. It has been a remarkable success story how well the Twenty-six Counties of the current Republic of Ireland have done and I am very keen to have that in the future for Northern Ireland. I wanted to make that point and I will leave the remainder of my time to Deputy McAuliffe.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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At the weekend, this island marked the 50th anniversary of the murder of civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday. The families and the people of Derry endured too long a campaign for the acknowledgement of truth about what happened in the name of the British Government but full justice and accountability have never been secured. This is true of most victims of the Troubles and I am today mindful of the Birmingham bombing families and the Reavey family, some of whom I have met. They and all victims are being re-traumatised by the British Government's proposed amnesty and the ending of all Troubles-related legal routes to justice and truth. This is a breach of the Stormont House Agreement, plain and simple. It undermines the entire peace process, which relies on the British Government not acting unilaterally.

The British Government must recognise that soldiers sent to the North in the name of protecting civilians must be held to a higher standard of accountability, particularly where devastating breaches of human rights occurred. The failure of the British State and its agents to accept responsibility and to deliver justice means that true reconciliation will be difficult to achieve on this island. Like others, I call on the British Government to acknowledge and correct the wrongs perpetrated by its forces and to abandon the proposed amnesty.

It is also important to remember the victims of paramilitaries and they too must be supported. They do not have a democratic or governmental institution to pursue. Those who murdered their relatives had no democratic mandate but they are equally guilty of committing atrocities. There is a responsibility on the people who represented those paramilitaries to bring forward solutions on how truth can be delivered. Opposing a British amnesty is not enough when there are people out there and in here who have it in their gift to give victims truth and closure. If you served in a paramilitary organisation, you have a role to play in delivering justice. We in Fianna Fáil and many others who truly believe in a united and shared island can see it is obvious that a major blockage to achieving this is the unresolved hurt and carnage caused by both paramilitary and state atrocities. As time passes and victims get older, and the risk of another generation having to dedicate their lives to seeking justice looms, we need to achieve real progress.

To conclude, for the idea of a united Ireland, we need progress, yes, but more importantly for the families and those who have been left behind, we need justice.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We move to the Rural Independent Group. I call Deputy Richard O'Donoghue, who is sharing time Deputies Michael Collins and Danny Healy-Rae.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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We are dealing with Northern Ireland and New Decade, New Approach. One of Ireland's legacy issues that I would be concerned about is trade between our country and the UK. Trade between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland has surged ahead. The latest official trade figures show that exports of goods from the Republic to the North increased by almost €2.6 billion between January 2021 and the end of September 2021 compared with the same period a year earlier, while imports from the North to the Republic climbed by €2.8 billion.

By anyone's standards, this is a success. However, when looking at this a bit closer, it seems Northern Ireland is the winner here because the regulation of imports from the UK is much easier to navigate when compared with the customs in Dublin. These figures can be verified by the customs regulation figures and practices. All regulations cost consumers money. The customs union code is designed to contribute to and harmonise implementation of customs rules and procedures across the EU. The code also implies that the system should be fully electronic and the systems should have unified data flow.

I am not talking here about the Northern Ireland protocol, which the EU rejects, but about the EU's commitment to mitigate the trade disruption, which only affects Ireland. We know that Brexit happened but it was accepted there would be an easement of regulation between Ireland and the UK. Northern Ireland is getting an easement of restrictions that does not exist in the South. For example, we import cereals every day from Kellogg's in the UK from and we import flour and bakery products. It is practically the same order every day, day after day, week after week.

The delays in our ports and in customs are causing importers to move away to different countries. The result is pushing the UK to markets in Argentina, since it is easier to import and export from there. The bottom line is that the cost to us of importing produce from the UK is now higher for the hauliers, which drives inflation. That drives the prices for food and basic goods in our houses through the roof. The Government needs to ease restrictions in our ports so that people in Ireland can be fed at a reasonable cost.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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Between 1969 and 1999, approximately 3,500 people died as a result of political violence in Northern Ireland. The conflict, often referred to as the Troubles, has its origins in the 1921 division of Ireland and has reflected a struggle between different national, cultural and religious identities. There has been much discussion in the Republic about our own history, as we reach the 100th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins, a man who hailed from west Cork and successfully signed the treaty for this country, which was close to the edge at that time. I have spent the last few months making every effort possible to get a stand-alone statue of General Michael Collins in our capital, the first of its type. Instead of doors swinging open, every obstacle possible has been put before the group in an effort to stifle progress. We should honour our past heroes with pride. They did so much, but their lives were cut short before they could finish their good work. I know that the honour will be given to Michael Collins on 21 August this year at Béal na Bláth, as will celebrations at Newcestown the same evening, as the Newcestown community group makes an effort to get into the Guinness World Records, with the most people named Michael Collins to congregate at any one time. Well done to all involved.

In 1998, the UK and Irish Governments, and key Northern Ireland political parties, reached a negotiated political settlement, resulting in the Good Friday Agreement. It recognised that a change in Northern Ireland's constitutional status as part of the UK can come about only with the consent of the majority of people in Northern Ireland as well as the consent of the majority in Ireland. The agreement called for a devolved government and the transfer of specified powers from London to Belfast, with a Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive in which unionist and nationalist parties would share power.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to get this opportunity. For those who remember the Troubles and all the people who were killed, hurt and maimed, the Good Friday Agreement is a milestone that will be appreciated forever. We cannot forget the people who were involved, including Presidents Kennedy and Clinton as well as Ted Kennedy and others from America. I thank former taoisigh, Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds especially. That man took risks when he was Taoiseach. I do not think he ever gets the credit he really deserves. Others involved were Bertie Ahern, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, John Hume and Ian Paisley.

We hear the British Government talking about granting an amnesty to police or army officials who committed heinous acts. This would rob the families of the victims of proper justice and transparency. I appeal to all those who know anything about people who have been lost, buried or disappeared to come forward. Both communities, South and North, need to work together to advance agriculture, industry, tourism and the provision of gas and electricity. Trade is important at this time.

We in Kerry appreciate northern buyers coming to buy cattle. Michael Kissane does outstanding work at Cahersiveen mart. There are also marts in Castleisland and Kenmare. Since Brexit, there are delays and extra costs for parts for special machinery. They sometimes cost two or three times the previous amount. We have got used, over the years, to buying different types of machinery that are not available here. That avenue is completely closed off now and it creates an extra expense for people who employ people and create jobs.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I note the title of the topic day, which is New Decade, New Approach. A new approach is exactly what is needed, because our current approach is not good enough and the cognitive dissonance of most of the Republic of Ireland regarding the North badly needs to be addressed. On Sunday, I, along with thousands of others, walked in remembrance on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. We paid tribute to the 26 who were shot and the 14 killed by the British Army in Derry in 1972. These people were marching for their rights when they were so brutally massacred. Devastatingly, their families are still seeking justice today.

I take this opportunity to remember those who lost their lives on that day in 1972 and express my solidarity with their families who, 50 years later, are still seeking justice. As was said by Bernadette McAliskey and Eamonn McCann from the podium afterwards, they are prepared to have their grandchildren stand to get the truth. They should not have to but they are prepared to do so. The British do not understand and have never really understood that it is the desire to see the truth that drives people to continue to march and fight for justice.

The Taoiseach said in his speech today:

Each family deserves access to a process of justice and until that processes in place families and communities will campaign and have to fight through the courts. And as time passes, that burden has already been passed to new generations.

That is exactly what was said on the podium on Sunday too. It could be seen from the number of young people who marched on Sunday. They were young people who were not even born, who remember and want to keep alive what has happened there. I believe the British Government does not fully understand that. What really shocked me on the Bloody Sunday anniversary, an awful tragedy that affected so many on this island, was the lack of coverage by the media in the South of Ireland and in general. On Sunday, only one newspaper covered the event on its front page and what was covered was not even regarding the anniversary of the event on Sunday itself, but about who was and was not there. We can no longer accept such silence and neglect. This State has failed the people in the North of Ireland time and again. This State stood idly by and watched the conflict unfold without taking necessary action to intervene. We neglected them then and we continue to do so.

We like to pretend that the British are and were neutral in the conflict, which, of course, they were not. This has allowed them to constantly hide from accepting their responsibility for the conflict. The Government in the South has allowed them to perpetrate that lie to a certain extent. There may not have been a peace process if the price was that the British had to accept a protagonist's role rather than a neutral role, but maybe the time has come for the Government to stop letting them off the hook and hold them to account. There is no doubt that we are prisoners of our own past when it comes to this issue. Successive Governments have been negligent of the North of Ireland for too long and we need to seriously reconsider the approach of this, and future, Governments. We can no longer allow the media and the Government to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to the North.

We know there is an appetite for change. A referendum on the reunification of this island is not far away and denial of this will not make this any less of a fact. We need to take discussions around this seriously. I do not mean discussions of flags and anthems. I mean real discussions of people, livelihoods, healthcare and housing. We know that cultural issues are important but the bones that will make up a possible united Ireland are more important. We have a unique opportunity to take the best of both regions and consider what a new, united Ireland might look like, leaving nobody behind in this. Under a united Ireland as it currently stands, unionism will have a huge voice and would probably be permanently in government with the southern conservative parties and would have a larger voice and control in a united Ireland than they do now in a failed statelet. That is a necessary outworking of the reunification of our country and I look forward to it happening, because it is only then that we can look to a day beyond that then when Irish people will decide Irish futures.

As we are here talking today about legacy issues, perhaps the Government could also look at dealing with the legacy of the heavy gang, particularly in light of the recent RTÉ documentaries about the behaviour of gardaí during the period of the Troubles, through the work of the heavy gang. It is a measure of the effect on this State that the State set up and allowed the operation with impunity of a gang of gardaí who could do what they wanted. While the State probably thought it was acceptable that it targeted republicans, we can see that the activities of the heavy gang also targeted ordinary individuals with impunity. It is an example of how, when the State compromises the rule of law, everyone loses.

It would be worthwhile for the State to investigate and hold an inquiry into the operation of the heavy gang and how it impacted our society in the context of the legacy of the Troubles.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This has been quite a substantive debate and I thank the Taoiseach and all of the Deputies, from all sides of the House, who contributed to it. Over the years, many of our days in this Chamber have been spent putting on the record the facts and the outstanding questions around terrible events in the history of the conflict and the hardship that followed for so many families. It is important that those events are acknowledged as they should be. The years have left a map of heartbreak in our collective memory. Mentions of places bring a flood of tragic associations - Ballymurphy, Kingsmill, Dublin Monaghan, Birmingham, Enniskillen, Derry, Omagh.

We must remember all those who lost their lives during the Troubles, each of them leaving behind grieving families. Too many of those families have faced needless barriers that have been placed in their path as they seek truth and justice, compounding their pain. Those proposing a statute of limitations have talked about drawing a line and moving on from the past. None of these families wants to live in the past and none of us wants to leave society indefinitely in a cycle of litigating the events of the conflict but we cannot make progress on the basis of unilateral moves by one Government to end justice and accountability, a move that so clearly also risks undermining the full facts of cases coming out. We must not try to draw a heavy curtain across our past. Instead, we have a responsibility to let the light in and the truth come forward. The way we move on as a society is by ensuring and being seen to ensure that everything possible is done to address outstanding cases that never received a full and proper investigation before now. Whether the person who fired the shot that took their loved one was a soldier or a member of a paramilitary organisation, whether he or she wore a uniform or not, every family bereaved in the conflict must have access to an effective investigation and to a process of justice, regardless of the perpetrator.

It is also important to say that I have met families who have challenged us in this State, as has been mentioned this evening, to do more to facilitate justice and truth recovery for cases where it is known or suspected that there was a significant cross-Border dimension. It is crucial to recognise and respond to that challenge and I have repeatedly said that this Government is willing to do that. We must, as a Government and a State, play our part fully in a collective approach that works for victims in all jurisdictions.

The Stormont House agreement reached in 2014 to deal with these issues is far from perfect but in truth, no perfect solution exists. Nevertheless, that agreement gave us an agreed path forward that was designed to meet the legitimate needs and expectations of victims in both jurisdictions in a way that upheld the rule of law and met our human rights obligations. We want to see such an agreed, collective approach in place and working for victims and their families. We have made clear that we are ready to engage seriously with concerns the British Government and others may have with the Stormont House agreement in order to establish an agreed way forward. The best step that could now be taken is for the British Government to withdraw its proposals for a general statute of limitations and join in good-faith engagement to find a sustainable way forward. We have made it very clear that from the Irish Government's perspective, we are ready to do that.

We must also ensure we have a vibrant, ambitious and forward-looking agenda, advancing the achievements of the Good Friday Agreement. This is why it was crucial that the NDNA agreement restored the devolved institutions after a three year absence. It is also why the Government has redoubled its efforts to implement the commitments it made at the time of NDNA, focused on working with the Executive, through the North South Ministerial Council, to deliver projects that benefit people across the island. These include greater connectivity between North and South, investing in the north west region and Border communities, supporting the Irish language in Northern Ireland and supporting reconciliation as an integral part of the peace process. Likewise, we have put forward the Shared Island initiative to bring a focus, a higher level of ambition and a genuinely inclusive approach to working on a shared future for all of us. Our focus is on harnessing the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to improve our shared, lived experience on this island and to try to bring people together. Through investment, research and dialogue, we want to deepen civic, cultural, educational, business and political links on the island and foster closer connections and mutual understanding. The Shared Island initiative is about recognising the transformative nature of dialogue and since 2020 eight Share Island dialogues have engaged in depth on key issues for our shared future, with civil society organisations engaging all communities and traditions.

In all of our endeavours, this Government always has been and will continue to be guided by our steadfast commitment to peace on this island. We know the achievements of the peace process must never be taken for granted. We will continue to work with both the UK Government and the Northern Executive to protect and uphold the Good Friday Agreement and its institutions in all circumstances. These institutions provide the people of Northern Ireland with a democratic voice and enable essential North-South and east-west dialogue. We face real challenges in the period ahead, including legacy issues, political tension and uncertainty, and of course, managing the outworkings of Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol. We have learned through hard experience that peace is a process and that it requires calm and measured leadership from both Governments, the Northern Ireland Executive and political parties there. Through the decades we have made real progress and sometimes unexpected breakthroughs that have made a real, lasting and positive difference in the lives of people throughout the island. This is what people rightly expect us to do now, again. The Covid-19 pandemic reminded us of just how fundamental co-operation on this island can be, whether it was HSE ambulances in Belfast or the close communication between the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland and NPHET in the Republic. The message was clear that we are better equipped to face the major challenges of our time when we do so collectively, together.

As a Government we will work to deliver positive change for everyone on this island by continuing to advocate for victims and survivors through the full implementation of the New Decade, New Approach agreement and by harnessing the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to improve the lives of everyone on this island. I thank everybody for contributing constructively to the debate this evening.