Michael Moynihan
Question:15. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Taoiseach if he has met or spoken with Ms Arlene Foster or Ms Michelle O'Neill since votes on 29 January 2019 in the House of Commons. [5349/19]
View answerTuesday, 19 February 2019
Questions (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Joan Burton
Question:16. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent meetings with the major political parties in Northern Ireland. [6705/19]
View answer
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:17. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his trip to Northern Ireland and the meetings he attended. [6710/19]
View answer
Brendan Howlin
Question:18. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent visit to Northern Ireland and the parties he met. [7900/19]
View answer
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:19. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent visit to Northern Ireland and the meetings he attended. [7985/19]
View answerMichael Moynihan
Question:20. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Taoiseach if he has spoken to or met with Ms Arlene Foster since January 2019. [8461/19]
View answerOral answers (25 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 20, inclusive, together.
I travelled to Belfast on Friday, 8 February for a series of meetings with each of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland. I met with the DUP leader, Ms Arlene Foster, the vice president of Sinn Féin, Ms Michelle O'Neill, the UUP leader, Mr. Robin Swann, the Alliance Party leader, Ms Naomi Long, and Mr. Colum Eastwood, leader of the SDLP. I had the opportunity, the night before, to engage with the convenor of the Green Party of Northern Ireland.
The meetings provided an opportunity to engage with the Northern Ireland political parties and to hear their views on the latest Brexit developments and the current political situation in the North. We discussed what could be done to get the institutions in Northern Ireland functioning again, and I once again emphasised our commitment to all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement and our continuing determination to secure the effective operation of all its institutions.
The Government wants to see an agreement in place to secure the operation of the devolved institutions, and will continue to engage with the British Government and the political parties in Northern Ireland to seek urgent progress in that area in the period immediately ahead.
On Brexit, I outlined to each of the Northern Ireland parties the Government's position, shared by the European Union, that the withdrawal agreement is not open for renegotiation, and represents the best way to secure an orderly Brexit while avoiding a return to a hard border.
It is 764 days since Sinn Féin collapsed the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly because of a heating scheme. While the inquiry into that scheme showed that Sinn Féin was more deeply involved than it admits, to the extent that its Minister of Finance took instructions from a secretive internal party structure, many other reasons are now being cited for the refusal to re-establish the democratic government of Northern Ireland. The DUP is clearly wrong and in breach of its responsibilities in its opposition to important equality measures, but there is no indication that the sheer gravity of the Brexit threat is getting through to those involved in the talks. It is quite extraordinary that, at a moment of great peril for Northern Ireland, it has been without a functioning Executive and Assembly for over 760 days.
Most people of goodwill will have seen the latest discussions and reacted with despair. Can the Taoiseach tell us exactly what is being done to try to break this cycle of failing talks? When we talk to the parties the only issue we hear about is the assigning of blame. Is it still the policy that nothing will happen until after the Brexit issue is resolved? The Taoiseach will be aware of the extremely bad signal which last week's decision to delay a major project in the North due to the re-profiling, to use his phrase, of Government expenditure. There are shades of Narrow Water bridge debacle in this. At a moment when we should be speeding up cross-Border projects, which have broad support, we are actually delaying them. Who in Northern Ireland did the Taoiseach inform of this proposed delay before it was announced?
Does the Taoiseach see any prospect that powersharing will be re-established in Northern Ireland in the foreseeable future, or did he get the impression that both Sinn Féin and the DUP are committed to not being involved in the Executive and not allowing the Assembly to recommence its work? Was a border poll discussed with any of the parties during the Taoiseach's meetings? Did the DUP outline to him the legal changes it wants to be made to the backstop, or is it simply rowing in behind the British Conservative Party position? Does it have a separate position on Northern Ireland? It would be interesting to know that. Was there any discussion about the type of changes it wants to see that would mean it might support some kind of withdrawal deal? I am talking about the withdrawal deal that has been negotiated or any variation of it, if available.
The president of Sinn Féin has recently stated that the next Chief Constable of the PSNI should come from outside the force. Does the Taoiseach agree with that proposal? Is he aware of whether other parties, such as the Alliance Party and the DUP, share that view? Was there any discussion about policing in Northern Ireland? Policing has been supported in Northern Ireland for a long number of years by all the parties, and it seems that may be about to change. Can the Taoiseach tell us about his discussions on that issue?
One unfortunate mantra the Taoiseach has continued to trot out, which we have just heard from Deputy Micheál Martin, is the notion that the renewable heat incentive scandal was some sort of little Mickey Mouse issue that should not have been of concern.
I did not say that.
The Deputy implied it.
I did not imply it.
The Deputy did imply it. That was my take on it.
The Deputy's take is incorrect.
It is the same attitude the Government seems to have. It is treated as if it was a small issue that the parties should get over, as if there was nothing important about it. Eamon McCann was the first Assembly member to call for an election over this issue because we were talking about hundreds of millions of pounds. It is an absolutely shocking scandal. It took place in the context of a raft of austerity measures that were agreed under the Stormont House Agreement, including the now notorious universal credit scheme and PIP social welfare assault on people in the North, plans to sell off state assets and to axe thousands of public service jobs. It was a vicious austerity campaign. We should not imply, whatever one might think about restoring the-----
Parliament.
-----institutions-----
Parliament.
-----that somehow we sacrifice the need to deal with scandals like this. Frankly, it is the Northern equivalent of the national children's hospital in its scale.
We are not collapsing the Dáil.
If Deputy Micheál Martin wants to make an argument about the institutions he should make it, but-----
We are not collapsing the Dáil.
I did not interrupt the Deputy. We should take the scandal very seriously. There were very good reasons to challenge an Executive that was responsible for such a huge scandal in terms of the expenditure of public money.
Some 764 days ago, when the Executive was brought down, it had fallen into massive public disrepute.
Of course Deputy Micheál Martin and others would know that if they were actually organised on the ground, as some of the rest of us are, and if they enjoyed an electoral mandate from the communities that said they would not tolerate the likes of the renewable heat incentive scheme. An inquiry is under way and it will report. When it makes its findings, I imagine we can all reflect on that.
There was an agreement last February to put the institutions back up. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I believe the next round of talks must succeed but for us to have a real prospect of success and for success to be arrived at, we need answers. By "we" I do not mean political parties but that citizens need answers to the outstanding issues. This means the DUP and the British Government must stop blocking rights that citizens elsewhere in Britain and across this island openly enjoy. This is not rocket science - no one is being asked to split the atom. This is actually straightforward.
I am keen to reassure Deputy Burton that policing is still very much supported in the North of Ireland and that the Northern Ireland Policing Board and other mechanisms carry out scrutiny and oversight. I wish to advise the House that last week it came to light that the PSNI had failed to disclose sensitive information to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland as it is obliged to do under law. The information related to several killings, including those of five people at Sean Graham bookmakers on the Ormeau Road in February 1992. The killings in question involved weapons supplied to loyalist paramilitaries by British agents and included the active participation of British agents. All of this is established and accepted public fact. I met the families yesterday, a Cheann Comhairle, who are awaiting but who will now not receive a report from the ombudsman. I could not overstate the distress and anger they feel.
Time is up, Deputy.
I could not underscore more strongly the fact that this turn of events has again dashed and damaged confidence in the PSNI. The families want to meet the Taoiseach. They look to the Taoiseach for his support and as the Taoiseach who has said famously that no citizen will be left behind in the North of Ireland.
Let the Taoiseach answer then, Deputy.
They have been left behind. They want to meet the Taoiseach. Will the Taoiseach meet them?
The Deputy will know by now that it is not my practice to organise meetings in the Chamber. Anyone who wants to meet me can seek a meeting in the normal way and it will be considered in the normal way.
Talks were held last Friday in Belfast. All the major parties attended. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was there, as was the Tánaiste. I was not present but the Tánaiste briefed me and advised me that little or no progress was made, unfortunately, in the talks. However, he said the two Governments would continue to engage about a process into the future that might allow progress to be made.
My own view is and has been for many months that the current environment, notwithstanding the reasons for the collapsed Northern Ireland Executive two years ago, is a difficult one to facilitate restoration of the institutions. Brexit has created extraordinary uncertainty. In the absence of a withdrawal agreement being ratified, it will be difficult to get the institutions back up-and-running. Frankly, the fact that the Conservative Party and the British Government depend on the votes of the DUP in Westminster to continue in existence creates a problem as well. This is because it does not allow the UK Government to play the role it would have played in the past by putting pressure on unionism and all parties to get back around the table and come to an agreement. These are two new dynamics that did not exist in the past when institutions broke down. They are two very unwelcome dynamics. Perhaps they will not be dynamics forever and perhaps they are not insurmountable either way.
I wish to clarify again that the A5 road is not delayed as a consequence of re-profiling by Government. It is delayed because of legal challenges in Northern Ireland and the fact that there is no Minister to sign off on the project. Once it gets back on track, the Government will be more than happy to provide the €25 million that we had intended to provide this year, because the road was supposed to start this year. If the road starts this year, I would be happy to be present at the sod-turning. I may even bring the cheque with me, but we are not going to pay €25 million to the Northern Ireland authorities for a road that has not even started when it was supposed to start this year.
It is a project to which I am highly committed and one in which I believe. It will connect Derry to Dublin, will help us to develop Derry and Letterkenny as a new urban growth centre and is very much part of Project Ireland 2040. It will help with the development of the north west. It will be beneficial not only for the western half of Northern Ireland but for people in Letterkenny, Donegal and Monaghan. It is a project I am keen to see started.
Thank you, Taoiseach. We are going to have to move on.