Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I, too, welcome the Minister, Deputy McDowell, to the House. He is a frequent visitor to this House and this is indicative of the amount of work going on in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in introducing legislation.

The Minister outlined clearly the background to the introduction of this legislation and referred to the Good Friday Agreement and the Joint Declaration. It would be fair for the House to acknowledge that the Minister, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and others have played a crucial and constructive role in bringing the process this far, and I would like to acknowledge that. As alluded to by Senator Hayes, the Agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed by all the people on the island and also within each of the jurisdictions, North and South. It behoves all democrats to adhere to its terms but, unfortunately, this is not always the case.

When I first read the Title I thought it was quite an innocuous Bill. I then read the memorandum, which appeared to be even more innocuous but on reading the substance of the Bill, I came across areas about which I would have some reservations. I do not want to appear pedantic in any way but the first aspect that struck me was the interpretations, something with which I never had difficulty previously. Perhaps that is indicative of our own backgrounds in terms of these issues but I would have difficulty with some of the descriptions in the Bill.

I am conscious that, through the Agreement, we have tried to bring relations between Britain and Ireland onto a higher plane and in the removal of Articles 2 and 3, which was voted for in the referendum adopting the Good Friday Agreement, there was a clear majority to give effect to the provisions. It strikes me as a little odd, however, because we replaced Articles 2 and 3 with a more aspirational article in the Constitution which I believe puts a constitutional obligation on us to pursue a united Ireland. I am well aware of the political, security and other sensitivities attached to that but it is important that we clearly state where we are coming from and everybody North and South has acknowledged that it is a legitimate aspiration for people to seek to have a united Ireland. This places an obligation on all of us, the Houses of the Oireachtas, Ministers and the Government, to pursue that. I would like to see that view more strongly reflected in the stand taken by the Government in this House. I will come back to that aspect because we can sometimes overstate the sensitivities and be apprehensive when there is no need to be.