Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag roinnt mo chuid ama leis an Seanadóir Mac Lochlainn. I will give Senator Mac Lochlainn a minute of my time because I am very good-natured like that. Tá fáilte is fiche roimh an Taoiseach agus gabhaim buíochas leis as a bheith linn, mar a dúirt mo chomhghleacaithe, as comhrá a dhéanamh linn agus as éisteacht leis na cuir i láthair sa Seanad inniu. The Taoiseach can probably guess what I will say to him on behalf of Sinn Féin.

It is of core importance and brilliance that this Seanad affords people such as me and my colleague, Senator Marshall, the opportunity to engage with the Taoiseach and colleagues in this House. A core tenet of the Good Friday Agreement is that a person born in the North can identify and, crucially, be accepted as Irish, British or both, and therefore is afforded equal treatment with regard to his or her rights. After the Good Friday Agreement was signed, the Dublin Government codified in its law recognition of the dual nature of citizenship for people born in the North, thus accepting both nationalities and its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement. The British Government did not. It has dodged its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement for 20 years, never codifying in law the provisions for Irish citizens born in the North to be accepted as Irish only, only that they could be identified as Irish. It is a subtle difference in words but a vast difference in practice. Essentially it means that under British law, Irish citizens born in the North are classified as British citizens by default and are treated under law as British. This is a flagrant violation of the Good Friday Agreement but it has gone uncorrected until Brexit because Irish and British membership of the EU helped it to stay camouflaged.

Brexit has forced this issue into the open, which is perhaps not a bad thing in this instance. It not only highlights the British disregard for the Good Friday Agreement but also brings into sharp focus the unequal status of Irish citizens who are born in the North. It is hard to convey the shockwaves that rippled across Ireland on the morning after the EU referendum when the result was announced. We could scarcely comprehend the implications of a leave vote for international relations in general, especially for Ireland. Not only is part of our island under British rule, it would be forced out of the EU against our express democratic will, but the island of Britain also forms a physical barrier between Ireland and the rest of the EU. When challenged about the issue of consent, the British Supreme Court dismissed the democratic rights of people in the North and concluded that the North's membership of the EU was a matter for the UK alone. This writes large the obscenity and injustice of being ruled by a foreign parliament.

What will change with regard to rights after Brexit? Straight off the bat is freedom of movement, one of the indefeasible freedoms of the EU. EU citizens currently have all the rights necessary to live, work and study in other EU member states without being subject to immigration rules. Irish citizens born in the North will hold EU citizenship which means that they will still have the freedom to move to the EU. However, Northerners with British passports will not have that freedom to travel to the EU and non-Irish EU citizens travelling to the North from elsewhere in the EU, for example, from the South, will be subject to tough immigration controls. How will that movement be policed? We are told that there will not be a hard border in Ireland, which is to say that there will not be physical barriers. The stricter rules will have to be enforced somewhere. Will it be by bus drivers taking people into the North? Will it be by employers? Will we have a case of certain people being singled out and treated as second-class citizens? There is a democratic right to vote and have candidates for EU elections. That right will be lost to all citizens in the North. As the Taoiseach knows, he could have done something to help us in that regard and chose not to. We were left behind. On one hand, he wants to give us the vote for President, a position which we support, but on the other, we are denied the right to democratic franchise and representation in the EU. We are not full Irish citizens or EU citizens.

We are also losing access to the European Court of Justice, which administers justice in cases concerning EU law. That court has been a safety net for citizens who believe that they did not get fair treatment in the domestic judicial system. Leave campaigners were clear that, whatever else happened, the Court of Justice had to go because they wanted to end interference from outside powers in the governance of their country. God forbid they would have to suffer external interference. This is from a nation that colonised half the world. The irony is lost on none of us. Post Brexit, a whole raft of rights will evaporate. There is no guarantee that the British Government will secure these rights, and even if it does, a Tory Government will light a bonfire underneath them. It has made a promise to that effect and, unlike most of its promises, it is apt to keep this one. We know this because it is fundamentally opposed to rights and equality and has partnered up with those denying rights, equality and progress to those of us in the Six Counties.

Brexit negotiations reached a milestone in November with the publication of the withdrawal agreement, a legally binding agreement between Britain and the EU that sets out our relationship for the two years following Brexit day, a transition period during which they will negotiate the long-term future relationship. The withdrawal agreement contains a substantial section dedicated to citizens' and other rights, specifying those rights that will be available to EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit. According to the agreement, EU citizens living in Britain will be able to apply for something called "settled status" to retain their EU rights. The latest position from the British Government is that Irish citizens born in the North will not be entitled to apply for settled status under the withdrawal agreement because, according to the Home Office, Irish citizens born in the North are actually British citizens so there is no need to apply for settled status and, by extension, this excludes them from retaining any EU rights available under the withdrawal agreement. This will make them the only category of EU citizens not eligible for settled status, another denial of rights that brings us back to an earlier point about the British being derelict in their duty to uphold the Good Friday Agreement.

While there is still much more to say, we face these problems and anomalies because we are not yet the Republic envisaged by our forebears. We are not yet the Republic declared in 1916, endorsed in 1918 and asserted in 1919, an event that we gathered to commemorate and exult just a few months ago. The lifelong dream, as the Taoiseach described it in his address, is not yet realised. Now is the time to prepare, plan, engage and use this Seanad to plan for new constitutional horizons. Now is the time to realise a real Republic and for Irish unity.