Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

The Government and, I trust, every Member of this House are committed to supporting inclusive dialogue with all communities and traditions alike.

I want to address one point Senator Nicole Ryan raised in relation to pregnancy loss. This is something that touches every household and family and does not recognise any border. The points the Senator made were very well put. It is a little bit far from my remit but I am more than happy to bring it up with the relevant Minister and I hope we can get a resolution on that long before this House is dissolved, if not before.

I want to reassure the House that the Government is not blind to the growing debate on our constitutional future - some of us have even joined it. The opposite is true: we follow it very closely; we participate in it. However, in purely practical terms, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland must call a referendum if it appears likely to him or her that there is a majority in favour of a united Ireland. However, the Secretary of State has stated unambiguously that there is no evidence that the necessary conditions have been met. If there is a future referendum within the consent provisions of the Good Friday Agreement, we will make all necessary preparations in accordance with the terms of the Constitution and the principles and procedures of the agreement. There were two points raised in the motion that refer to an all-party Oireachtas committee. A great deal was done by the committee in the previous Dáil and I welcome that being brought up again in this Oireachtas but that is a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas rather than the Government. On the citizens’ assembly, I have had the debate many times: do we have it before the decision is made that a border poll is required or afterwards? Will we really get buy-in if it is just an aspirational thing? I think it merits deeper thought and discussion. That is not to dismiss it but it is not the catch-all or win-all. Maybe it is like the “Field of Dreams” and if you build it, they will come. I remain very much open-minded on that. Therefore the Government has no issue supporting this motion.

The key point remains. The most important thing we can do at the moment is to promote reconciliation - real reconciliation between affected communities but also breaking down the real but invisible barriers that all of us surely recognise. Think of people from Senator Kelleher’s constituency of Cork North-West or Senator Conway’s constituency of Waterford, bearing in mind that Senators’ constituents are the whole island. Of the people from their localities, how many actually travel to Belfast or Derry? How many people from Belfast come down to spend time in Dublin for sport, culture or heritage? We are not doing enough to break down that barrier. We need to get more people to view this as a single destination and crucially, from a political and governmental point of view, we need to make sure the agreement’s institutions work and deliver for people in meaningful ways that they can feel in their day-to-day lives. After far too long, we are finally starting to address the legacy of the past. We will hold the British Government to its word to faithfully follow up its responsibilities in that regard. However, if this is to be successful and we are to build a united Ireland and fulfil the dream of generations of bringing our nation together under one state, we have to make sure that unity is not only towards a united Ireland but a better Ireland and a shared Ireland. I am more than happy, as Senator Blaney said, to work with every single politician, from all parties and none, and every member of civil society and beyond to achieve that aim, regardless of the position I hold.