Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, to the House. I welcome the opportunity to debate the Government position on the current political situation in Northern Ireland. The Minister of State is very familiar with affairs in the North, having previously been Chair of the Good Friday Agreement committee, of which I am a very vocal and strong member. I am delighted to see him here in the House.

It is great that we have the opportunity for this discussion. Particularly in recent weeks, developments have been unfolding by the hour and in every news bulletin we listen to, with allegations and new and fresh information coming forward. In that sense, I hope we did not pre-empt the situation by having the debate today. I would ask that, as events unfold over the coming weeks, this might be something we can return to in the very near future.

In the past month alone, there have been discussions, breakdowns in discussions, breakdowns in communication, arrests and releases without charge. We had the First Minister standing aside and Ministers resigning their posts, and we see a situation where, other than Arlene Foster, there are currently no Unionist Ministers serving on the Executive. I welcome the fact, as the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, said, that work has been ongoing by the Taoiseach, the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, in encouraging these round-table talks.It is welcome that the five main parties resumed the talks on Monday. We need to move forward as no one wants to go back to what we had. Senator Maurice Cummins spoke about Dearbhail McDonald’s recent article in the Sunday Independent. Living in Dundalk, I, too, remember the ordeal of travelling across the Border, as anyone from a Border town will know. As a child, I was absolutely terrified of British soldiers, guns and the fortresses we sometimes had to go through. One horrific day, I saw, as a child, the attempted shooting of a British soldier in Newry. It has remained with me. I can only imagine the horror people living in these circumstances experienced, as Dearbhail McDonald said, and the effect it had on them.

It is welcome that tomorrow the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement will meet families dealing with legacy issues. It would be great if we had the Narrow Water bridge project to cement North-South co-operation, both physically and politically. There have been robust discussions about this project, both at the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association. It is awful that such good projects are marred by planning and costing decisions. We could do much more to move it forward.

I welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland that there will be enhanced support and resources to tackle criminality in Northern Ireland. Fuel smuggling is epidemic across Border areas, a matter of which my colleague and fellow member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, Senator Paul Coghlan, has conducted an in-depth study and which I am sure he will address this evening. Louth County Council has borne the brunt of the inordinate costs of clearing up the diesel sludge left behind by these criminals. We need to tackle and address this question honestly. As Senator Maurice Cummins said, we need honesty on both sides.

During the summer I listened to an emotional address by Paul Quinn’s mother on radio, a mother gutted by the loss of her son but vehement in her view that the IRA is still in existence and controlling areas along the Border. She is also vehement in her view that the IRA was responsible for the death of her young son, who was brutally beaten to death in County Monaghan. She claims people living in Border areas are well aware of the situation, a point backed up by so many people who live along the Border. I travelled between Dundalk and Monaghan for 16 years passing through Cullaville every day. It was well known as an IRA stronghold. One could not drive through it sometimes because of threats or bomb scares. People who claim they have no idea of this need to come forward.

Another person to whom I spoke recently was Paudie McGahon, who came forward in the past few months as the victim of abuse by a Republican member in his own home. He is adamant that the Sinn Féin leader was well aware of the abuse in 2002. Unfortunately, the Sinn Féin leader denies this, just as he denied any knowledge of the horrific abuse of Maíria Cahill and failed to report his brother for abuse while allowing him to work with young children in Dundalk.