Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to thank Madam Speaker for coming to Seanad Éireann today. I thank her and the people of Cyprus for their support for Ireland during the Brexit negotiations and for your solidarity during those difficult years to make sure that there was no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland. A country that is familiar with a hard border certainly does not want to see one return to another island nation.

I join with Madam Speaker in paying tribute to our Defence Forces and the members of an Garda Síochána who have served with the United Nations in peacekeeping duties in Cyprus. I also join with Madam Speaker in our support for the United Nations ongoing efforts on the reunification process in Cyprus. We know that in 2004 the Annan Plan was a referendum that was put to the people. It did not pass on that occasion. One of our poets once said "Try again. Fail again. Fail better" but next time we will succeed I am sure, in securing reunification, working with our United Nations colleagues.

Ireland and Cyprus have an unfortunate distinction in that there are approximately 50 island nations in the world, of which we are the only partitioned islands. We went through the same issues: invasion, war of independence, civil war and partition. We share that tragic past as Madam Speaker has said, but together we will have a brighter future. What we do in the next decade with your leadership and the leadership in this country will decide the next century for the people on both our islands. We need to be careful with all the moves we make to ensure that the failures of the past are not repeated. Madam Speaker quoted George Bernard Shaw: "We are made wise not by the recollection of our past but by the responsibility for our future". I am sure you are echoing the words of someone who spoke in this Parliament 50 years ago. This was another president who also quoted George Bernard Shaw. He said, "Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and say why not." Madam Speaker is one of those people who dreams of things and says "why not?" I thank Madam Speaker for addressing us today.