John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Leader to make reference today to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. While I am conscious that success has many fathers, it is important to put in context what happened at the time. The fall of the wall was the result of a convergence of facts. First, the system that operated behind the wall was corrupt and inefficient. Second, people came together at the time. I have in mind a cardinal from Poland who spoke out strongly about people's rights, including their social and religious rights. That cardinal was Karol Wojtyla who subsequently became Pope John Paul II. The Solidarity Movement took strength from this and began to agitate and seek better conditions. On previous occasions in Hungary and what was then Czechoslovakia the Soviet Union tanks had moved in but on this occasion the Pope said that if they did, he would stand with the Solidarity Movement. It was a major change in Europe. When millions of people came out in support of the movement and Pope John Paul, the good people in the West, including the then US President, Mr. Ronald Reagan, called strongly for the wall to fall. The climate was right and everything converged for it to fall. We now have a new Europe, Germany and Russia and a better world as a consequence.