Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Tánaiste to the House to discuss this important matter. I also thank the Fianna Fáil Senators, in particular Senators Blaney and McGreehan, for using their Private Members' time to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which the Labour Party supports in full. It is, of course, only right that we mark this important milestone on this island.

The agreement brought an end to decades of bloodshed, suffering, grief and turmoil for many families. It ensured a generation could grow up in peace. The agreement is, and must always be looked upon as, an instrument for the future of this island and for those who live on both sides of the Border. It has allowed space and a timeframe that must never be lost and into which further division can never grow. Many people were part of this historic agreement, including people from political parties and community groups, and individuals, who came together to ensure that this island had a future and that peace would return to us all. The Good Friday Agreement has created a path, as I have said before, for the future of this island, an island that can and should be shared by all of us, including those of particular religions and none, and those who were not born here in the first place.

I have listened to a lot of commentary in recent weeks, particularly since the local elections in the North, about the need, first and foremost, to get the institutions up and running. If we are to be sincere as politicians on all sides about the future, this must be the starting point and must happen in the quickest possible time. Democracy has spoken and now the time has come for all politicians from all sides to ensure that the wishes of the people are enacted and we see politics and politicians at work for the people who elected them.

During my three years in the Seanad, I have worked on a number of committees in respect of Northern Ireland and its future. One of those, the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU, which considered the effect of Brexit, was chaired by Senator Lisa Chambers. It examined many of the day-to-day problems experienced by business and community groups in the North, the fallout from Brexit and how it could affect trade and how it was affecting trade and commerce on this island on an almost daily basis. There were similar conversations at another committee with which I was involved. Representatives of both traditions and a number of community groups attended the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on the constitutional future of the island of Ireland, chaired by Senator Mark Daly. We were told by many of the communities who were working together that it was the future they wanted. Both sides recognised there could never be a return to violence and what happened in the past. That is why it is so important that everybody now comes together and that these institutions get back up and running.

There is a generation in this country who have never known what it is like to turn on a radio or sit in front of a television and witness the murder and destruction of communities and families on a scale that so many of us in this House witnessed and lived through. The Good Friday Agreement has given us the instrument to ensure that will not happen. It is a conversation I have on a regular basis with my eldest child, who was born in 1999, which was after the Good Friday Agreement. I tell him the stories about what happened. It is a conversation that everybody on this island should have with children who were born after the agreement. They need to know what went on. They need to know what the Good Friday Agreement did for peace in this country. It is an important conversation for the younger generation who have not seen on their television screens what happened on the streets in the North. I worry when we hear about attacks like the recent one on senior detective John Caldwell. The latter was a flashback, if it was needed, to why we need the Good Friday Agreement to keep that violence away from us all. It is a flashback we should all take on board. We need the Good Friday Agreement to work for us.

It is important to acknowledge those who have lost their loved ones and to acknowledge their families tonight and always over those many years. Indeed, as has been said, the number is 3,800. It is also important to acknowledge the families still waiting for news of where their loved ones are buried.

Like others, I am excited about the future of Ireland - a shared island as the Tánaiste has themed it in the past with his initiative. I pay tribute to him for the work he has done on the shared island initiative. Its importance has been acknowledged by business groups, etc., that we spoke to when our two committees were in train. That is a path we need to take as we plan the future of this island. We need to bring everybody with us. Let us never forget those who worked to get us this document and ensured it got over the line so this country can have a collective future.