Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an Seanad. We have a precious peace, but it is not a perfect peace. When it is not a perfect peace, it means much more work has to be done in the area of truth, reconciliation and healing. There are safe assumptions such as those my friend, Senator Carrigy, makes when he says that when he thinks of Óglaigh na hÉireann, he thinks of General Seán Mac Eoin, or when Senator Craughwell says he served in Óglaigh na hÉireann. I have no doubt the Óglaigh na hÉireann he served in is the real and only one, but in other parts of Ireland, people would not see it that way. They served in a different Óglaigh na hÉireann. I am not asking Members to agree or to appreciate that but I am asking them to try to see it through that prism, unpalatable as it may be. It is only when we reach deep into where other people are coming from that we will reach a genuine authentic peace. The peace process, which is an ongoing project, may well take a step forward in healing this evening. I do not like to make predictions but it might well be that this motion may not be opposed today. That is a huge step forward. It would have been unimaginable 20, ten or five years ago.

Parliamentarians in this Chamber are all old enough to remember the slogan, the ballot box in one hand and the Armalite in the other hand. That is the context. That is a long journey for people to travel in two respects. It is a seismic shift to be signing a press release with P. O’Neill, Óglaigh na hÉireann on it. That was in a different Ireland, thank God. They will make mistakes and get things wrong on that journey. We do not have to love them but we have to reach out, listen, try to understand where they are coming from and build up some respect.

Equally, on the journey are the die-hard parliamentarians and democrats who stood by the flag through all those years of bitter pain when members of Óglaigh na hÉireann and An Garda Síochána in most towns in this country went out, left their families and never came home. I know all about the hurt that caused. I know one member of An Garda Síochána who died in 1983, and his mother, now deceased, never recovered. That is damage it did.

Let us not expect too much. On this journey, do not expect modernisation. It may be a form of modification. If that modification is genuine, I am not asking people to embrace it but to work with it. As that modified force in Irish politics gets stronger and seemingly stronger again, it is important that people never take cheap political shots at it out of envy. This motion is driven 100% by authentic sincerity and it should be seen in that context.It should be seen in the context that perhaps this safeguard will prove to be useful in years to come but it does not, thankfully, have to address any challenge today. My county, Kildare, has a very proud Defence Forces tradition. Of course, there is only one Óglaigh na hÉireann.

I welcome the Minister. I do not for one moment question the bona fides of the Senators who moved and seconded this motion. I also believe the Minister can never be accused, as sometimes happens, of putting up smokescreens and excuses or sending something off to another committee. Has anyone ever seen a monument erected in honour of a committee yet? I have not. It has not gone to committee, however. Each and every one of the points made by the Minister would appear to be statable, plausible and credible. He is right to take the best possible advice. In my humble opinion, however, none of those points would prove to me to be legally insurmountable, nor has the Minister said otherwise.

Senator Malcolm Byrne has started a journey by adding a piece to the jigsaw. That is all it is. It is a small step but when that step is fully enacted and completed, hopefully, in a politically mature environment, it will be a good day for that healing and authentic peace we all want and for which we are all striving. We have so much more work to do to achieve it, however.