Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank both speakers for their kind words about my dad. It is very much appreciated. I think he would agree with me when I say that we were the lucky ones. I too want to remember the 3,700 people who lost their lives and, of course, the people who never gave up on finding peace.

I thank Mr. Ahern for marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement with us today. I have had the opportunity to hear him speak a number of times over the past six months and I learn something new every time.Your contribution to our report was very important. No one can deny the role you played, along with your British counterpart Tony Blair, when you both became Heads of Government. That role will be remembered in history. You both knew the destination, a path that took decades to carve out and that had many footprints over the years but you still had to get us there. If that opportunity has been missed, how many more lives would have been lost or destroyed? You and Blair set the bar for good Anglo-Irish relations, followed by Kenny and Cameron, helped by Major with Bruton and with Reynolds – partnerships that we now look at with envy in an era of convergence rather than divergence. They showed us what happens when Ireland and UK Governments work together and what is at stake when they do not.

The Windsor Framework is an accommodation that must be grasped after Brexit, which has been disastrous for Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement. The closer-than-close UK and Ireland relationship that was facilitated by daily interactions through shared membership of the EU, shared membership of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, through shared laws and regulations must now be recreated. The institutions of the Good Friday Agreement, like the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference and bodies like the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA, were set up to do that. Now they must be prioritised and invested in, through regular and consistent contact, including at the top levels. I thank my colleagues, Senators Wilson and Ó Donnghaile, for their work on the BIPA report we did.

We still have a very tough fight ahead of us when it comes to legacy, as the UK Government ignores calls to work together on legacy and has appointed a chief commissioner to a body that has yet to be set up under law. We must use every lever disposable, both within and outside the bilateral relationship, to ensure this damaging legislation does not go ahead. I have just one other point-----