Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much, a Chathaoirligh. I echo Senator Ó Donnghaile's points on the western rail corridor. I note the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action also called for a complete reassessment of the cost-benefit approach previously used and to look to the very real and significant benefits we have seen wherever rail is created. The fact is there is a pull and not just a push factor. When this kind of infrastructure is created, it makes an immense difference, as it would to our whole western seaboard.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 25 be taken before No. 1. The proposal will be seconded in due course by my colleague.

I will highlight and speak in particular about something that has been extremely distressing over the past week, which is the news we have seen out of Sudan. In April 2019 in this Chamber, I spoke about Sudanese civil society. Indeed, I hosted Sudanese civil society groups and activists to mark the fact they had successfully and peacefully ended the 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir. At that time, I spoke with members of the Sudanese community and was inspired by some of the strongest speakers I have ever heard. For example, young women spoke about picking up paint brushes, cameras, pencils and microphones instead of weapons to ensure a peaceful transition to civilian-led government. It has been disappointing, in the interim period following al-Bashir's departure, that the international community has given insufficient regard and support to supporting that fragile new arrangement. For example, the insistence by international partners that there would be an immediate fulfilment of austerity measures came at a very politically vulnerable moment for the new political leadership. When civil society had agreed a 50:50 relationship with the military, it was being pressed to pay back immense debts it was not responsible for. This came at a time of extra pressures and constraints, when understanding political latitude and support for government was needed.

As a country with experience of peace negotiations, I would have liked Ireland to have played a more active role. Ireland did some very constructive work in South Sudan, for example. However, it should take a similarly more active role in supporting, for instance, Ethiopia and others, which are trying to act as mediators to support that peaceful transition. We are now, however, in the situation where more than 100,000 people have fled Sudan, where there are two warring generals, civil society is again crushed in between these military actors, upwards of 330,000 people have been displaced in the country since 15 April, and ceasefires are failing to properly hold. Yesterday, we again saw another, in principle, truth-----