Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join the Leas-Chathaoirleach and other colleagues in expressing my sympathy and that of my party colleagues to Ms Doody on the loss of her brother Patrick.

A number Senators were in London yesterday and the day before with the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. We engaged with both the House of Commons and the House of Lords and with a range of political parties in London. Everyone will acknowledge and appreciate the change in mood music around the issue of the protocol and that is welcome. I support and encourage it and wish it well because we all know we need to get any issues around the protocol resolved satisfactorily. I have to say, however, that our trip was the most encouraging. I will touch on some of the issues raised before making a request of Seanad colleagues.

The change in mood music around the protocol is welcome although, as I said, no issues are resolved yet. In tandem with the issue of the protocol, we have the issue of the so-called legacy Bill, the fall-out from the Nationality and Borders Act, which the House debated and expressed unanimous opposition to, and the continued denial of democracy and government to citizens in the North. We need to look at these issues much more in the round. Colleagues we met in Westminster, who have some degree of knowledge of Ireland, the North and the Good Friday Agreement, encouraged all of us to up our game in parliamentarian-to-parliamentarian engagement, speak to colleagues in Westminster, both the House of Commons and House of Lords, and ensure, as we come to the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, that there is a good understanding of what the agreement is about and what it does and also of the universal opposition across every political party in Ireland to the attempts to drive the legacy Bill through and the negative impact that will have. Colleagues who live along the Border will be aware of the potential threat posed by the Nationality and Borders Act to communities, the economy and society and its implications. Having spent the past day and a half in London with Senators Blaney and Currie and colleagues from the Dáil and Westminster, I ask Senators who have contacts in London to redouble their efforts because it will be necessary. I am sure they will have already conveyed their dismay and experiences. That message comes from people who were involved in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement and in the early days of its implementation and who are still there and know the consequences of the regressive political moves that are being made. I encourage everyone to maintain the solidarity we have shown in the Oireachtas and ensure the message is heard loud and clear from these institutions.