Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste. I commend my colleagues, Senators McGreehan and Blaney, on tabling this important motion. Last Easter marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. The 25th anniversary celebrations provided an opportunity to reflect on what was achieved and what is left to be achieved. Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach and one of the main architects of the agreement, in his address to the Seanad last Tuesday, 23 May, stated:

In the human journey, anniversaries play a significant role. They serve as markers of memory, calling to mind an event, moment, person or group of people of significance to us personally or as a community. The exercise of recall serves many purposes – remembering, memorialising, honouring and reflecting – and it can also be a catalyst for renewal to resolve or redouble efforts associated with the person or event being recalled. Landmark anniversaries like decades or centenaries have even further significance in the outworking of memory. Twenty-fifth anniversaries undoubtedly sit in that category of significance. Whether we are talking about the life of a person, a marriage or an organisation, or even a country, reaching the quarter-century mark has an impact of special importance to us. Making it to 25 years carries a certain status. It speaks of viability, endurance, resilience, staying power and, yes, achievement. Of course, no human endeavour is perfect but arriving at the milestone of a score and five years deserves to be acknowledged and saluted.

I acknowledge and salute the roles played by all of those involved in bringing about this historic agreement. One of the main things we can celebrate, as Senator O’Loughlin alluded to, are the thousands of lives that have undoubtedly been saved. During the three decades of the Troubles, 3,720 people were killed - 1,533 of these victims were under the age of 25 and 257 were under the age of 18 - and 47,541 people were injured.There were 36,923 shootings and 16,209 bombings. Countless numbers of people were traumatised, and that trauma is transgenerational.

The non-functioning of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive is a major worry. I take this opportunity to call on the DUP to take its place in the assembly. I appreciate that the party has some difficulties, but those difficulties can be ironed out. Major steps have been taken to deal with the majority of the party's concerns. Democracy should not be taken for granted. It is too precious a commodity. I have outlined statistics about deaths, injuries and bombings, the majority of these occurred in the Six Counties but they also took place on the rest of the island of Ireland. None of us wants to see a return to that. Notwithstanding all its flaws and failings, democracy is the best process, although it should not be taken for granted.

On the legacy legislation, I join others in paying tribute to the Acting Chairperson, Senator Currie, for her contribution, especially at the recent British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Jersey. She was very forceful and was speaking from experience, namely, the experience of a young girl growing up in the North of Ireland. I was struck by that. Copies of her contribution should be circulated in order that other people can read it. The UK Bill is called the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. If passed, it would allow the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to grant immunity in respect of crimes committed during the Troubles. The Bill is opposed by all political parties in the North and the Republic. All the political parties in the North can agree that it is flawed. The UK Government is failing to heed the overwhelming opposition to the Bill and continues to ignore calls for the legislative process to be paused, for the Bill abandoned and for it to commit to an agreed way forward. If that legislation is passed, the relatives of the 33 people killed and the 300 injured by the bombs in Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 will never get the truth. Geraldine O'Reilly and Patrick Stanley were both were blown to pieces in Belturbet 50 years ago. Their relatives and the relatives of the eight people injured in that blast will never get the truth if the Bill is passed.

I will finish on a positive note. I commend the Tánaiste on his involvement in the purchase of 1,000 ha of upland habitat in west Cavan for the Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark. It is the only cross-border UNESCO Global Geopark in the world. I commend the Tánaiste on his efforts in that regard. Deputy Brendan Smith and Councillor John Paul Feeley brought the matter to his attention. I thank the Tánaiste for providing the moneys for that development from the shared island fund. We look forward to considerable amounts of money into the future in order to develop the rest of it as well. There are so many positive things we can do together on the island. There are faults and failings with the Good Friday Agreement that we do not have time to go into, but the main outcome relating to it is that there are thousands of people alive today who would not be where it not for the agreement.