Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom ábhar an athmhuintearais a lua ar maidin. This morning in Clifton House in Belfast Sinn Féin launched a comprehensive discussion document entitled "Uncomfortable Conversations". Its focus is on the process of reconciliation across the island. It is ironic to be talking about this, given some of the exchanges this morning. We could all do with a degree of reconciliation now and again. Almost 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement, the process of peace and reconciliation cannot ever be taken for granted. It can never be allowed to remain stagnant or static. We must always be very conscious of the need to reassess, reinvigorate and re-energise that process. We have made monumental change. The next step on that journey, as widely acknowledged, particularly but not exclusively in the North, has to be the national dialogue around reconciliation.

We have had a national dialogue and will have more on Brexit. It is important. There have been calls in this Chamber and others for a dialogue about preparations for Irish reunification. In parallel with those discussions we need to have a conversation about respect, equality and embracing and cherishing one other’s views, perspectives, cultures, languages and practices. In the North, there is an acute sense that political Unionism has failed to step up to the mark in respect of its responsibilities to the equality agenda, to respecting a sense of Irishness and Irish identity, the Irish language, as well as expressions of our culture and national identity. As part of a process of nation building we have to have that process of national reconciliation. I am very proud of the role that republican leaders, particularly Martin McGuinness in recent years, have played in that process. It cannot happen in isolation and we should not allow it to happen in isolation. We all have a role to play. If the conflict affected all our lives and history across this island, so too must the process of reconciliation. I hope this Chamber can help to facilitate and convene some of that dialogue.