Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to represent the Government and to speak in support of the motion on the Good Friday Agreement and the shared island initiative. I will not oppose the amendments. The Good Friday Agreement, signed 23 years ago last month, was both an end and a beginning. It was an end to long years of hard work and difficult compromises on all sides. It was the beginning of a new process of peacebuilding and reconciliation.That process has not always been an easy one. It has seen many days and nights of challenging dialogue. We all know that the work of peace can be sometimes slow, uneven and frustrating. We know too that there remain real societal divisions and challenges for the peace process. However, we should not let any point in time or period of challenge obscure how much progress we have made through the Good Friday Agreement since 1998. An entire generation has grown up with the experience of peace and an ethos of equality and tolerance, which is more prevalent than ever before. This is a foundation for achieving so much more in the years immediately ahead on this island. Each of us here today, and our counterparts in London and Stormont, have an obligation to protect that once unimaginable peace and ensure we never go back to the dark days of generations past.

In January 2020, the two governments, together with the political parties, reached a deal that would restore the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement to power after three years of absence. While the period since the New Decade, New Approach agreement has been one of exceptional challenges, the importance of working institutions in Northern Ireland has never been clearer. Those institutions have been and undoubtedly will continue to be tested, so we must continue to do all we can to work in support of them, guided by the principles and the promise of the Good Friday Agreement.

In recent months and with the worrying unrest of recent weeks, which has thankfully now calmed somewhat, the importance of channels for regular and positive North-South and east-west communication created by the Good Friday Agreement has been made clear again. Through these channels, we have engaged with the British Government on the need for a meeting of the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which is now set to take place next month. These meetings are an important facet of the Good Friday Agreement, designed to allow for positive co-operation on issues within the competence of the two Governments.

It is vital that we all keep making progress toward the full realisation of New Decade, New Approach, especially on those most sensitive areas such as language, identity and the legacy of the past, where the trust of communities is so important. The lack of progress in addressing the legacy of the past is a sincere concern of many here and it is one I share. Like many others, I was surprised and disturbed by media reports last week in relation to possible unilateral UK legislation to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.

The position of the Government has been clear and consistent. The Stormont House Agreement framework is the way forward on these issues. It was agreed by both Governments and political parties after intensive negotiations, and it should be implemented. Where the UK Government proposes significant changes to that framework, the Government has made clear that these must be discussed and agreed by both Governments and the parties to the Northern Ireland Executive. Crucially, victims and survivors must be at the heart of the process. This message has been strongly reaffirmed over recent days since these proposals emerged, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will continue to engage on this important issue in the days and weeks ahead.

The motion also speaks to the rights of people on this island. During the Brexit process, the Government worked closely with the EU and the UK to ensure that the Northern Ireland protocol included a commitment to ensure no diminution of the rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity set out in the Good Friday Agreement. It is important to say that, far from conflicting with the Good Friday Agreement, the protocol exists to protect it and to clearly affirm that the principles of consent in the agreement will continue to apply. It reaffirmed that any change to that constitutional status can only come through the consent of a majority of people in Northern Ireland.

Everyone on the island has a right to advocate for the constitutional future they wish to see for Northern Ireland, whether they aspire to a United Ireland, to remain a part of the United Kingdom or do not identify with either tradition. The Government affirms that right and all the constitutional provisions of the Good Friday Agreement in their entirety. The Government will continue to listen to and engage with the views of everyone on this island on the constitutional future that they wish to see for Northern Ireland.

The agreement also means we do not need to be defined solely by our different perspectives on constitutional issues on this island. It enables us to work together to deal with the vast array of other concerns for people, and to build for the future, North and South. In doing so, we deepen trust, understanding and connection between communities and political traditions on this island. Reconciliation is fundamental for our future, whatever that future looks like, on the island. Notwithstanding day-to-day political differences and the challenges in the peace process, we need to invest in and harness all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement with ambition, so that we continue to deepen co-operation, connection, mutual understanding and trust between communities and traditions on this island. That is the focus of the Government’s shared island initiative.

We are working intensively today and setting a higher ambition for the period ahead on what we do in partnership with the executive and the British Government to deal with shared challenges we face on this island. Such challenges include supporting societal recovery from the pandemic, tackling the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis and fostering economic opportunities across the island.

In the budget last year, the Government established the €500 million shared island fund, with ring-fenced capital resourcing, to invest to build a shared island through North-South partnerships. Two weeks ago, the Government announced a total of €12 million in funding from the shared island and rural regeneration funds to enable the delivery of phase 2 of the Ulster Canal, and start progressing phase 3. We are moving ahead with this long-standing project comprising blueways and greenways as well as marinas and other public spaces, which is a perfect example of what North-South co-operation can achieve. The Ulster Canal is an amenity that connects towns and communities. It is central to the Border region and is a sustainable tourism initiative that will create jobs and be a linchpin for economic opportunities on both sides of the Border. We will be making more such investments this year and through to 2025 through the shared island fund to build a more connected, prosperous and sustainable island.

The North-South Ministerial Council met last week and noted the all-island strategic rail review that was jointly launched by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister for Infrastructure in the executive, Nichola Mallon MLA, in April. Taking account of the outcome of this review, we will plan and invest strategically, working with the executive, the UK Government and as part of the European Union, to upgrade our cross-Border rail and other transport connections on the island.

To look at the opportunities of our shared island and how we can deepen co-operation and connection, the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, working closely with my Department and others, has commissioned a comprehensive research programme. This is being conducted in co-operation with the ESRI, the National Economic and Social Council, the Irish Research Council and other partners. This programme will produce a stream of independent, rigorous, forward-looking research and analysis on issues for the island. Such issues include how we can do more to protect biodiversity and work together on climate mitigation; how we can enhance the attractiveness of the island as a whole to high-value foreign direct investment, FDI, including in Border regions; what we can learn from experience in our health and education systems, North and South; and where are the opportunities for more mutually beneficial co-operation. The ESRI programme will be announced in more detail in the coming days. All research work will be published to inform public and political discussions on how we can deepen links at all levels, including economic, civic, social, cultural and political, on the island in the years ahead.

The Taoiseach has also launched a shared island dialogue to foster constructive, inclusive civic dialogue on an all-island basis on key issues around our shared future. Earlier today, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, participated in a shared island dialogue with more than 100 equality campaigners and activists from North and South, considering how we take up the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement in the years ahead and how to advance equality and protect rights on this island, recognising the commonality of experience and connections between people North and South. These civic discussions bring people together across communities and regions, while building engagement and even consensus on how we work together for the future. The dialogue series will continue through this year, with a focus on economy, health and education. Hundreds of people in each of the different sectors are involved and the discussions and reports are available online to contribute to wider discussions. It has been encouraging to see the readiness of people from across all communities and traditions, North and South, to engage in inclusive, practical, open and honest dialogue on how we can work together for a shared future on this island in the years ahead. Through the shared island initiative the Government has set an agenda that everybody on this island - Irish, British, both or neither - can engage with confidently. It does not diminish or compromise anybody's identity or beliefs. It is about working today and setting a level of ambition for the years ahead to realise the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement, to improve the lived experience for everybody on the island and to deepen mutual understanding between communities. It is how we are taking the next steps in the peace process, founded on the Good Friday Agreement, and the journey to a more reconciled Ireland. Recommitting to the principles in the Good Friday Agreement is more vital than ever today. The people of the island of Ireland, particularly people in Northern Ireland, were profoundly affected by the Troubles and by years of hardship and pain. They endorsed the 1998 agreement, they voted for this peace and it belongs to them.

The Irish Government, together with the UK Government, must guarantee that agreement in all its parts and in all circumstances. Its protection and implementation are a solemn duty which is not distracted or diverted by short-term political challenges or political expediency. As a co-guarantor of the agreement, we are determined to protect all it has helped to achieve, and we will not allow complacency or the complex challenges that remain to undermine our work here. It is our shared responsibility. We must strive every day to implement the agreement, its provisions and its spirit, to the fullest extent possible. As such, the Government welcomes and supports the motion that has been put forward that we should work with all communities and traditions on the island on a shared future underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.