Seanad debates

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

10:30 am

Photo of Frank FeighanFrank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Nationalist MPs from Sinn Féin and the SDLP have done so. I think that sends out another signal. Third, there really should be an aspect of the Republic of Ireland looking at associations with the Commonwealth of Nations. This would send out a signal that we mean business. If we want to have an all-Ireland soccer team, we should be able to compromise in these situations. Fourth, the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly has provided huge opportunities to parliamentarians from Britain and Ireland and the North-South Interparliamentary Association has been meeting since October 2012. It has gone under the radar and unannounced that MLAs from the DUP have been sitting in the Seanad Chamber for the past five years. We have sat in Stormont. We meet every six months. We need to look at enhancing all of these good and positive things. Perhaps they have been done under the radar because it was politically correct to do so. We need to send out a signal that we have met and we will meet. Fifth, we must look at the east-west relationship. We must set up an Oireachtas-Westminster group, along the lines of the North-South Interparliamentary Association, to try to break this logjam. It will not be simple to break the logjam in Northern Ireland. I believe a new east-west committee between Westminster and the Oireachtas is needed to break the logjam.

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