Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the motion. Tomorrow, a coroner will deliver the findings of the inquests into the deaths of ten people from Ballymurphy in Belfast in August 1971. That period was a tumultuous time and the political landscape had been changing dramatically since 1968. The British Army that had arrived on the streets in August 1969 was supposed to protect Catholics. Instead, an element took over where the B-Specials and RUC left off. The policy of internment, directed at the IRA, was imposed indiscriminately on Catholics, further alienating the community. The leaders of the civil rights movement continued to work for peace and political reform instead of violence right up to the Good Friday Agreement.

Between August 1969 and 1973, 60,000 people in Belfast, more than 10% of the city’s population and inclusive of people from Ballymurphy, were forced to move. This was the biggest forced migration anywhere in Europe since the end of Second World War. People outside of Belfast, including my mother and eldest sister who was then less than a year old, moved to camps in the South because their homes were not safe anymore. The streets were terrifying. It is against this backdrop that ten people were killed in the Ballymurphy massacre in Belfast. For 50 years, the families have sought the truth about how the deceased were killed and to have their names cleared of alleged wrongdoing. There was no police investigation at the time. They had to investigate themselves. Out of respect, I would like to read the names of the deceased into the record in an acknowledgement of the suffering their families have faced over the past 50 years and again in the last week, and in the hope that tomorrow they will get the answers they need.I know we disagree on a good deal in this House but I hope we will agree on this. With your permission, a Chathoirligh, I will name the following: Fr. Hugh Mullan, 38; Francis Quinn, 19; Daniel Teggart, 44; Joan Connolly, 44; Noel Phillips, 19; Joseph Murphy, 41; John Laverty, 20; Joseph Corr, 43; Edward Doherty, 31; and John McKerr, 49. I also want to pay my respects to Pat McCarthy, who died of a heart attack and is not part of the inquest.

As others have pointed out, there have been reports that a unilateral amnesty imposed by the British Government could be announced tomorrow. This would undermine any pathways to justice not only for those I have named but for all victims. The Stormont House Agreement principles were based on consensus and it should be taken forward in that manner. If it is true, it will be utterly devastating and unjust for all of us and our hopes for reconciliation. Moreover, it casts another shadow on east-west relationships. A day that should be about truth and accountability could also be about dodging these. There can be no dodging the consensus on the Stormont House Agreement. The rule of law is part of that agreement.

There are significant gaps in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, including legacy, a bill of rights, the civic forum and the north-south consultative forum. I am committed to implementing all of them. A bill of rights can set the foundation for all citizens and equality. Today I am keen to focus on the civic forum and North-South consultative forum. We should think about post the trauma of Brexit and post Covid-19. We should be all focused on rebuilding, what we have learned and what we need to change. These forums would give communities a wider platform to engage at a time when stability is needed. We can see the people and communities that politics has left behind in the North. We saw recently what has happened in the areas that did not benefit from the peace dividend and we know the reasons. It has been a factor in the unrest. These forums could address the gaps and create some momentum for change. They could look at creating better economic opportunities for communities, address cycles of poverty and help the business community to take advantage of the Great British and EU markets as well as the investment opportunities Northern Ireland desperately needs. A North-South forum could examine the all-island economy and potential for exports and tourism.

There is too much inward thinking by the British Government and the two main parties in the North. It seems stakeholders work only to their "isms" and bases at the moment. The agreement has been damaged by Brexit, a British nationalism agenda, a solely unionist agenda in Brexit negotiations and a single lens reaction to the protocol. It has also been damaged by the consistent prioritisation by Sinn Féin of its extreme version of republicanism, as played out during the pandemic. It has been damaged by disregard for public health guidelines and regular celebrations of people who have taken lives, which does retraumatise people in other communities and is divisive.

We are in a period of change because of internal and external factors. I mean it genuinely when I say that I would rather write our future together than try to rewrite the past. Instead of widening the base we should be narrowing the divide.

All of this puts more pressure on the Government to uphold and defend the Good Friday Agreement in all of its parts. I believe we have to be fierce about that. There is no alternative to reconciliation within the North or in relations north-south and east-west. The Northern Ireland Assembly is necessary to address political, social and economic problems. Conversations are happening about our future in political parties, in the Chamber, in civic society and in my party. I am committed to the work of the new Ireland commission that has started. Respectful dialogue reached every part of this island and brought us to agreement 23 years ago. Consensus is a process like the peace process. I hope it brings us to a new Ireland that can be finally free of identity politics.