Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am honoured to thank Lord McFall and to do a summary not only because I am a Senator or because I am chair of committee A at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, but also because I am from County Tyrone. I am a proud Tyrone woman.

Lord McFall is very welcome. The theme of today has been relationships. I reassure Lord McFall that is on the agenda of BIPA. On the sovereign committee, we are currently doing a report about the future relationship between Britain and Ireland or England and Ireland. The report touches on Anglo-Irish relations and the future relationship between the two sovereign Governments. We did not just lose a neighbour when the UK left the EU, we also lost the opportunity for those close relationships at EU meetings, those informal meetings about which Lord McFall was so articulate. We must find a way to replicate and replace those meetings.

I cannot let the opportunity pass without echoing the words of my colleagues in respect of the two Bills coming before the House of Lords. We see a chink of light with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill but we do not see the same chink of light when it comes to the legacy Bill. Echoing what others have said today, I ask Lord McFall to bring back what he has heard, to listen to all the political parties on this island, and to the UN and the Council of Europe. Most importantly, I ask Lord McFall to listen to victims who are telling us that this is not the solution. We know the importance of the rule of law in Westminster. We are asking the UK to act in full compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Now that the mood music is changing with respect to the Northern Ireland protocol, I must say it is not just about the Assembly, which we desperately want to see up and running, but it is about the work of all of the institutions across the three strands of the Good Friday Agreement. It is great to hear Lord McFall echo that message about relationships. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, we must bring it back to where it has been in the past. I thank Lord McFall.