Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans to commemorate the Good Friday Agreement and its twentieth anniversary. [41386/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Planning is underway in my Department to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, on 10 April next year. A number of key events, at home and abroad, are being developed as part of a programme to highlight this important anniversary and to celebrate the achievement of the Agreement, which continues to be the cornerstone of our commitment to peace and reconciliation.

My Department, both here on the island of Ireland and through our overseas Embassy network, is supporting, and actively engaging with, a wide range of individuals, groups and institutions, who are considering and planning conferences, seminars, cultural and artistic responses, remembrance acts and other initiatives to mark the 20th anniversary of the achievement of this seminal Agreement. Initial contacts with the British Government have also taken place to consider how best to appropriately reflect the key role of both Governments as co-guarantors of the Agreement.

The Government’s programme to mark the 20th anniversary of the Agreement will include events in Dublin, Washington, London, and Belfast. These will include a new production of Rising to Reconciliation, which was developed for the 18th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and uses poetry, images and music to reflect on the troubled journey towards peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland.

All these events will also be an opportunity to reflect on the peace process, past and present; to remember the loss of life during the years of conflict; and to look back at all that has happened on the journey of peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland. This journey is of course an ongoing one, and the continued imperative to work to realise the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement will form part of the Government’s approach to the 20th anniversary.