Seanad debates

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Good Friday Agreement and Windsor Framework: Motion

 

10:30 am

Photo of Joe O'ReillyJoe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is not without its own appropriateness. I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his appointment to the crucial role of Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs. I also welcome the Sinn Féin motion. I agree with its sentiments and I congratulate Sinn Féin on putting it on the programme.

At this juncture, I will appeal to the British Government from this Chamber to change tack on the ill-fated legacy Bill and to look at a much more considered, conciliatory and consultative approach to any amnesties that might arise. That is a call we should all echo. Perhaps the Minister of State will reference the matter at the end. Such a change of tack is required.

All the actors involved in the Good Friday Agreement on this island, in the UK and in America need congratulations. The leaderships of the Provisional IRA and the loyalist groupings of the time deserve great congratulations on bringing such a great tranche of their people with them into the agreement. My party takes great pride in the achievement of the Sunningdale and Anglo-Irish Agreements that were precursors but, to be very straight and fair, the personal courage and leadership of Albert Reynolds in putting himself at great risk, both politically and otherwise, in this exercise also has to be recognised.

The Good Friday Agreement involves the principle of consent, the principle of power-sharing and an east-west dimension. In that context and with a growing centre in Northern Ireland politics, the veto must be looked at and examined. I ask the Minister of State to respond on that. The agreement did its job and did it well but, as we evolve and with the growing centre, there will have to be a new model that does not involve the same veto on proceedings.

Brexit presented a real challenge to the agreement and the success we had in achieving the protocol and the Windsor Framework is remarkable. It is right that we leave space for the DUP but we just have to hope that the power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland can get up and running again. We have to do everything possible to ensure that. It again behoves the Minister of State to respond on that matter. We need to get normal politics in operation to look after what Senator Currie has spoken about, people's bread-and-butter issues.

Northern Ireland is in a wonderful position now in that it has access to the Single Market and the UK market, presenting it with a unique socioeconomic opportunity. In the context of moving to Irish unity, to which we all aspire, the big challenge is to build relationships on this island. We have to work on having much more contact between people, institutions and groupings in the North and the South. I will propose a few practical things. The Minister of State might take them to Government.

One is that all grants such as sports capital grants, community grants and urban renewal grants should be based on a system that awards bonus points to applications showing a link to Northern Ireland. For example, extra points may be available for a sports club that visits Northern Ireland and that has Northern Ireland clubs down here. For a town, there may be points for being twinned with a town in Northern Ireland. This will result in an in-built positive discrimination towards groupings, clubs and societies that want to build unity on the island. That is something tangible that could be done in the morning.

The special unit in the Department of the Taoiseach offering grant aid to constructive North-South initiatives is also important. The point Senator Black made, that, as a county and a society, we have to build towards unity by consent, is correct. It is about building personal relationships and trust. It is painstaking and slow but it has to be at the level of the person on the street. As I often say privately to Senator Ó Donnghaile in conversations we have around certain events, it is bizarre that so many people, even in the region I come from, look to Dublin-----

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