Seanad debates

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to be associated with the remarks in respect of the tragic death of Councillor Manus Kelly and to extend to his party colleagues, his family and his many friends in Donegal the sympathy of the Independent Group. It was a tragic event.

Senator Ardagh referred to a very real issue in respect of catchment areas for schools. It is not just a local issue. I drive past the school in question every day on my way to and from my workplace. The idea that a line is being drawn between postal districts is quite absurd, especially since, as Senator Ardagh stated, the school is at the confluence of several postal districts. I have never heard a more ridiculous idea in my life. It is grotesque. This is not just a local issue. It is absurd that a postal district should be used to determine a catchment area, in particular in respect of that school into which a large amount of money is being invested.

On Senator Feighan's remarks on Brexit and the Brexit debate, I was watching Boris Johnson's performance while being interviewed on these issues on television last night and it struck me that he is leaving open every escape hatch for failure. At the same time, pipe smoke of unachievable and absurd semi-commitments is being puffed out for the acceptance of the Tory membership. The idea that the backstop can be made temporary is ridiculous and amounts to an attack on the Good Friday Agreement. The Government has been backed by all sides in these Houses in its determination to dispel the notion that the Good Friday Agreement is up for grabs or can be made collateral damage as part of an English nationalist plot to break up the United Kingdom.The message should go out resolutely from Seanad Éireann that Ireland is not on its own, that its position is the same as the rest of the European Union and that we are not standing on some nationalist principle on the Good Friday Agreement. We are there to sustain a peace which is based on an international treaty, registered at the United Nations, supported by the European Union which is part of international law, part of our own constitutional law, part of the constitutional law, insofar as that exists, of the United Kingdom and we cannot be cajoled or bullied into abandoning the achievements of the Good Friday Agreement.

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