Seanad debates

Monday, 17 May 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Ned O'SullivanNed O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Leader will join me in wishing our retailers, shopkeepers and small businesses well on their reopening after a long close-down. My family were in the business of the provision and retail of menswear for 150 years and I know exactly how big a day this is for small shopkeepers. It is a time when we must give them support. The Government, in fairness, gave those businesses and their staff very good supports during the lockdowns. However, they are going to be on their own from now on. I would appeal to the general public to support their local shops. Shops on high streets all over the world are up against the massive multinationals and megastores. The local shop is the heart of local towns and when the day comes that the shop closes down, small, lonesome and empty streets of the kind we have been looking at for the past six months will be left. I am sure the Leader will encourage people to shop local.

My Fianna Fáil colleagues, Senators Blaney and McGreehan, brought an important Private Members' motion about the Taoiseach's shared island initiative to the House last week. The motion received the unanimous support of the House, which is to be welcomed. Only today, the shared island unit, in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has published its first papers, examining economic and social opportunities from increased co-operation on this island. The four papers cover areas of mutual concern, such as cross-Border trade, primary care, education and training systems, and foreign direct investment. This is another step in working towards a shared island and a good relationship between North and South. I urge all Members to study the papers and bring them back to their constituencies.

The shared island movement has been given a fair welcome by our unionist neighbours because they do not see it as a threat. The Taoiseach has made clear that the enterprise is predicated on maintaining peace and shared living as priorities. Unionists are no fools and they are not nearly as sanguine about a number of other organisations and groups, self-appointed and answerable to nobody, that are engaging furiously in dialogue about constitutional change and agitating for a border poll. Some of those groups present themselves as disinterested and neutral voices that are anxious merely to facilitate the discussion that we all support. What they are really doing is building up momentum for a border poll which they think should take place when, and only when, they think they will get the answer they want.An Irish Independent-Kantar opinion poll showed quite clearly that a majority in the North are in favour of retaining the union with Great Britain. There is a nuanced range of opinions in the South on the issue of unity. It is emphatic that more than 70% of the Irish population see this type of agitation and constitutional movement as representing a real danger to peace on this island.

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