Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I agree with Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell’s amendment to the Order of Business, I am calling for a special debate on the North of Ireland. The situation there is in crisis mode. Sinn Féin and the DUP, Democratic Unionist Party, are singularly incapable of governing in the North and do not seem to want to govern. The Irish Government is also allowing the British Government and the parties in the North to direct affairs and be involved in talks, playing a backroom role itself. A recent statement from Theresa Villiers, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, referred to the subsidiary role of the Irish Republic in the talks in the North. This is a breach of the practice and agreements over the past several years.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party do not have an instinctive appreciation of the relationships which helped bring about the peaceful situation in Northern Ireland. I also do not believe Sinn Féin and the DUP are capable of governing in the North without some serious input from the Irish Government. I am calling for a debate on this.

I am also calling on the Deputy Leader to ask the Government to take much more of a role in the North of Ireland. Deputy Eamon Gilmore, when Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, took a disgracefully side-line approach to the North.