Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House again today. I believe he will be here later on as well.Fianna Fáil supports this legislation, which is one of the key outcomes of the Fresh Start agreement of November 2015. The Bill creates a new monitoring body to review and report on any paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland. It is a damning indictment of Sinn Féin and the DUP that such a body is still required almost 20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement. The peace process was always about more than the absence of violence. However, the zero-sum attitudes taken by the two main parties which has led to the current impasse in Stormont has hobbled the immense potential and optimism of the Good Friday Agreement. This sterile political environment has allowed paramilitaries to continue to blight both communities in Northern Ireland.

This Bill was necessitated by MI5 and the PSNI confirming the continued existence of the IRA and its role in formulating Sinn Féin policy. Sinn Féin has fundamental questions to answer around its links to the IRA, which has no part in the democratic state. It is now time for Sinn Féin and the DUP to move beyond tribal partisanship and work to ensure Northern Ireland is capable of addressing the challenge of Brexit. The Bill ultimately arises from the Fresh Start agreement. However, Northern Ireland remains engulfed in yet another political crisis, which has led to the protracted paralysis in the institutions. The lack of progress in getting the institutions up and running is deeply disappointing and underlines our concern that zero-sum politics is sustaining a fertile ground for paramilitaries.

Due to the tight numbers in the House of Commons following the recent elections to the British Parliament, the Tory Government is reliant on DUP support. The DUP has secured a deal worth £2 billion over two years and further flexibility around £500 million already committed. It appears to bypass the Barnett formula used to allocate funding across the component nations of the United Kingdom. This has drawn criticism from other devolved administrations. We hope that a focus is placed on key Stormont House and Fresh Start measures such as the A5 motorway to Derry, which will be a key piece of infrastructure for the north west, and the Narrow Water bridge, which should be completed. The Irish Government should uphold its commitment to those measures.

The botched renewable heating incentive scheme could cost up to £490 million and has acted as the catalyst for this crisis. However, behind the immediate problems lies a deeper malaise that has afflicted the institutions over the past number of years. The political system has to move on from this addiction to crisis politics. Over the past few years, there have been annual problems with the institutions, punctuated by a series of new agreements and arrangements designed to keep the system ticking over. Since 2013, there have been the Haas talks, the Stormont House agreement and the Fresh Start agreement, all aimed at reinvigorating a stagnant political process. History has shown it requires both Governments to fully and honestly engage in order to keep the peace process moving forward. The DUP's leverage cannot be allowed to stymie progress and undermine long-established British policy for the sake of short-term political gain. Likewise, Sinn Féin has painted itself into a corner and must have the honesty to agree a way out of this impasse. With Brexit looming, all parties need to work together to ensure there is no hard border. It is time for real maturity and leadership from all of us on the island.