Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)

Today, as we debate this vision and a practical way towards a united Ireland, I want to bring this conversation to a place where it is important - into the lived experiences of families, parents and women whose voices have been silenced for far too long. Yesterday, in the North, the Assembly passed the final stage of the baby loss certificate scheme. It is a compassionate, voluntary, non-legal certificate that simply says to bereaved parents:, "Your loss mattered and we see you." In the North, they have taken that step. In the UK, those schemes already exist. Yet here in the South, here in our own Republic, we still have no recognition whatsoever for pregnancy loss under 23 weeks.

The research in our own pre-legislative scrutiny makes the gap crystal clear. We currently only recognise stillbirth after 23 weeks gestation, and anything before that is treated as a non-event. Families who lose a baby at five weeks, ten weeks or 20 weeks leave the hospital with nothing. There is no recognition, no validation and no acknowledgement that the life they hoped for ended too soon. We know from comparative evidence that England’s model requires no legislation and is entirely voluntary, with no time limit on when the loss occurred. Scotland operates a memorial book and provides commemorative certificates that, again, hold no legal status but hold enormous emotional and human value. These schemes exist because parents asked for them and their governments listened, but here in the South what do we tell parents? We tell them: "It just happens sometimes. Go home and move on."

Imagine the cruelty of that. Imagine a couple sitting in a waiting room after losing their deeply wanted pregnancy and being told that because their loss happened at 22 weeks and six days, their grief does not count. Now, overnight, we find ourselves in an extraordinary and, frankly, shameful position. On this island today, one side of the Border tells parents: "Your loss mattered, your grief is real and we honour it." South of that same Border, though, our Republic is telling them: "There is no recognition for you here." This is not just a policy gap; this is a human gap and a compassion gap, and it widens every day we fail to act. It gets to the core of why a united Ireland matters.

A united Ireland is not merely about flags or borders. It is about harmonising rights, dignity and recognition for all people on this island. It is about ensuring that where you live does not determine whether your grief is acknowledged or ignored. It is about ensuring that no parent’s heartbreak is validated in Derry but dismissed in Donegal. When the North has advanced compassionate policies like this, and when the UK has long recognised the importance of certificates like this, it is indefensible that this State lags behind. The irony is that our own legislative framework already gestures towards the modernisation needed. The legislation we examined outlines provisions for such a certificate, but the actual scheme has yet to materialise. Families have waited long enough. This is where a united Ireland becomes more than aspiration - it becomes a promise. It becomes a promise that a parent’s experience will be recognised no matter where on this island they live, a promise of equality not only in sovereignty, but in empathy and a promise that compassion will not stop at a checkpoint on the M1.

In building a united Ireland, we build a fair Ireland, a kinder Ireland, an Ireland that listens and an Ireland that values the intimate and devastating moments in people's lives. Today’s motion is about the future of this island, but let us never forget the future that is made up of the stories, grief and hopes of ordinary people. Today, those people are simply asking for recognition. In the North, they now have it. In Wales, it will be there soon. In England, they have it. In Scotland, they have it. It is time, and well past time, that we have it here too. A united Ireland would not ignore those people. A united Ireland would not tell them to get over it. A united Ireland would say loudly and clearly: "Your loss mattered and we see you."