Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste is welcome. I apologise for being out of breath. I was stuck at another meeting and could not get away. I also left my notes behind, but I will do the best I can.

It is great to see the Tánaiste here. Along with his Cabinet colleagues at the time, he certainly played a major role when the Good Friday Agreement was being drawn up. Everybody who played his or her part in bringing the agreement about deserves great credit and respect. I include all parties in that. At this time, I think, in particular, of Albert Reynolds. He had the courage to reach out to the terrorists and to invite them to give up the path of criminality and come into the mainstream of politics, and they did. They were reluctant, but they came in. I often think that was a paramount move in the whole thing. How many countless lives have been saved because of the agreement? How many people are walking around the streets of Belfast, Derry, Omagh and other places, and, indeed, the streets of Dublin and the rest of the Republic, who would not be here had it not been for the peace agreement? We celebrate that and welcome the motion. It is unfortunate that Senator Blaney is unavoidably detained, because he and the Acting Chair, Senator Wilson, put much work into that.

In celebrating the agreement, we must also face the fact there have been some major disappointments and many lost opportunities over the past 25 years. Lives are not being lost daily, and that is the most important point, but the whole idea of restoring normality to this island was equally important. From the word go, a certain element in our society had no intention of buying into what was required of them to see that normality could be restored. The old attitudes still prevail. The old them-versus-us attitude still prevails, as does the belief to the effect that "We are going to outnumber them someday and we will make them dance to our tune".

We all grew up with fond ideas of an Irish Republic. I come from that political background. Many of my granduncles and others made sacrifices to bring it about. As I have matured and got older, I have learned things are not resolved by constant confrontation, agitation and ugliness towards others. A normal society is brought about by reaching out one's hand in genuine friendship. I have been doing what I can over the past number of years to reach out the hand of friendship to our loyalist neighbours in the North. Those who do not share our nationalist opinions are equally entitled to their opinions. I have found many of them to be very decent people. My family and I worked for a long time in the menswear business. As Members may know, Northern Irish people are very much to the fore as agents in Ireland in the textile industry generally. Most of the people I dealt with, North and South, were of the other persuasion. I found them to be tough, uncompromising, honest and reliable in business. It was from that experience I gradually found myself becoming more measured and balanced in my views.

Where do we go now? As I said, huge mistakes have been made. I do not want to join in with lacerating any particular group; the DUP must answer to its own supporters. However, its elected members are excluding themselves from Stormont and therefore it cannot function. Let us not forget though that the Sinn Féin party excluded itself from Stormont for reasons far less valid and kept it in abeyance for a number of years. Its members are now singing and dancing about the DUP. We all know what politics is about and we accept a certain amount of it, but this issue is too big. This is about human life. This is about peace. God forbid this happens, and I am not forecasting that it will, but should there ever be a resumption of violence, an awful lot of the people who are going around blithely calling for border polls and constantly sniping at unionism will have much to answer for.On the border poll issue, I think this is very wrong. At a time when people have another opportunity to make the North work and to work together, there is a group that is constantly agitating for a poll that they know they would lose if it was held in the morning, which is the most ludicrous thing of all. There is absolutely no chance. If you do not believe me, go into Paddy Power bookmakers. At the moment, if you believe that a border poll will be carried between now and 2030, you will get 4/1 against. That is a generous offer and I like to bet on our horse. If you think that it will not be carried, your chance is only 1/7. In other words, you have to put on £7 to win £1. That is as good a racing certainty as I have ever heard.

Let us be real about it. The border poll enthusiasts know there is not a hope in hell right now, in the short term or even in the medium term. Why are they doing it? We must ask ourselves why they are doing it. They are doing it because it suits them to use it as a stick to beat unionism and loyalists from here to eternity and to gather votes for a certain political party. They can turn that on and off at will. I will finish. If things are not right, they will play it down. If things need a bit of jizzing up, they will play it up. One will not hear much about the border poll in our next general election down here because they know that people down here see through that and see through the codology. I want to tell the truth. I speak the truth in here and I see nothing but hypocrisy from a certain element in this House when it comes to the North of Ireland.

We will finish on a positive note. All those who played their part in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement will never be forgotten. Let me finish by quoting the great Seamus Mallon. It is all about sharing with people. It is not about defeating people.