Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 15 Jul 2015

Vol. 887 No. 2

Northern Ireland: Statements

The Taoiseach

I welcome the opportunity to open this debate on Northern Ireland. The House has just agreed an all-party motion in support of the Ballymurphy families and their quest for the truth about what happened to their loved ones who were killed over the course of a number of terrible days in Ballymurphy in August 1971. Their stories are a stark reminder of the horrors of the Troubles and the unfinished business of the past.

We must also recognise, however, how far we have come. Bilateral relations between the UK and Ireland have never been stronger and they continue to mature and deepen. These relations have been cemented through the highly successful and significant reciprocal visits of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland and President Michael D. Higgins to the United Kingdom. More recently, the visit of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to the north west was another significant and poignant milestone.

When the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and I signed a joint statement in 2012, it was a very deliberate statement of intent. We wanted to set out a roadmap of closer co-operation over the next ten years. We mapped out, in the most comprehensive way ever, a structured process of engagement, activity and outcomes between our two Governments. This is underpinned by annual summits where we both review progress and an ongoing programme of engagement at ministerial and senior official level. When the UK Prime Minister and I met last month in Downing Street, we renewed our commitment to this process and raised our level of ambition. We agreed to build on the success of co-operation initiatives already undertaken and those that are under way. Last year, Ministers from Dublin, Westminster and Stormont travelled to Singapore on an international joint trade and investment mission, the first of its kind. David Cameron and I both agree there is more business like this to be done for our mutual benefit. This includes business with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in areas such as infrastructure, energy, marine resources and scientific research.

Elements of this agenda can also be progressed through structures established under the Good Friday Agreement, including the British-Irish Council. I have had the honour of attending all nine scheduled plenary meetings of the Council since becoming Taoiseach. When I chaired the most recent meeting in Dublin on 19 June last, we dealt with relevant practical business on the common social policy challenges we face around substance abuse. The UK Prime Minister and I also discussed the importance of the provisions of the Stormont House Agreement for dealing with the past. In that context, we discussed a number of legacy cases, including the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, Ballymurphy and the Pat Finucane case. I impressed upon the UK Prime Minister our desire to find a way forward on these.

I also outlined the progress that we had made in the provision of information to the coroner's inquest into the Kingsmill massacre.

We also took the opportunity to discuss our shared agenda with regard to the decade of commemorations, including the Ulster Covenant, the Great War and the Easter Rising. Since I became Taoiseach, I have been determined that we should use this extraordinary period, which contains so many centenaries, not only to honour the past in a respectful way, but also to reflect on our shared heritage and sacrifices. I was privileged to visit the war graves in Flanders to honour all those Irish and British soldiers who died during the First World War. President Higgins and the Prince of Wales similarly joined in a solemn ceremony to pay our two nations' respects earlier this year in Gallipoli. We look forward next year to marking the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in a very respectful way as part of the extensive 2016 programme that we have put in place. The centrepiece of this programme will be the Easter Rising commemorations and it will be a multifaceted programme of State ceremonial events, cultural activities and art and historical exhibitions. I want this to be an inclusive, respectful programme with the active involvement of young people, the acknowledgement of the role of women and the engagement of our global diaspora.

As is the case with British-Irish relations, a practical approach to real world policy and economic issues is also informing the work of the North-South Ministerial Council. There have been 20 plenary meetings of the council since its establishment under the Good Friday Agreement and I am glad to say that I have led the Irish delegation on nine occasions, most recently in Dublin on 5 June last. Supporting the work of the council and the work of the North-South bodies, Ministers and officials continue to deepen our engagement with counterparts in the North on issues that will directly benefit all of us who live on this island. There is more business to be done here as well. I regret that the A5 road project, a strategically important piece of infrastructure, has not progressed substantially because of delays in Northern Ireland. Accessibility to all parts of the island is a fundamentally important issue for both economies, dependent as we are on exports, tourism and the easiest possible movement of goods and people. This kind of infrastructure will help us to win more investments.

Due to the fact that I am ambitious for North-South relations, I am ambitious also that if there is a resolute and unwavering leadership North and South, this island could accelerate exponentially cross-Border economic co-operation and the sharing of services. I know that there is an appetite, not only among businesses along the Border, but also among investors and potential investors all across this island, to see greater coherence between the two jurisdictions to facilitate in a better way economic growth.I am impressed, for example, by the ambitious thinking that is being done by the Confederation of British Industry, CBI, in the North and IBEC with regard to the all-island investment project. I met with both the CBI and IBEC along with business community representatives when I visited Belfast in March of this year, my 12th official visit to the North since taking office. This project envisions an island of 10 million people and is looking at the kind of road infrastructure, energy market and digital connectivity that we will need to service economies and societies of that scale. It also looks at how we can optimise a Belfast-Dublin economic corridor and market that internationally under "Brand Ireland". I want to see the Northern Ireland Executive finding a resolution to its current political impasse so that it can devote the time and creative thinking needed to drive real economic growth and social development both within Northern Ireland and on a North-South basis.

It is not as if we lack good examples of where co-operation works. Our investment in the inland waterways has been a remarkable success. In February, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, announced the approval of further restoration by Waterways Ireland of a 2.5 km stretch of the Ulster Canal at an expected cost of €2 million. Tourism Ireland's all-island focus allows us to market this kind of investment in a mutually beneficial way. We are experiencing record levels of tourism on the island. Total overseas visitors to Northern Ireland in 2014 grew by 6%, with holiday makers increasing by 11% year on year. In this jurisdiction, total overseas visitors are up by 12% in the first five months of the year, compared with the same period last year.

There are many other examples of progress across the North-South Ministerial Council's work programme. In respect of agriculture and rural development, progress is being made on the delivery of an all-island animal health and welfare strategy action plan. InterTradeIreland is working to encourage and stimulate greater co-operation and to increase applications to EU framework programmes, including the EU's research and innovation programme, called Horizon 2020. There are very tangible and mutually beneficial operational programmes being put in place between our two health services to ensure that we optimise the specialist health care assets that we have on the island. This makes eminent sense. We need to look continually for ways to work smarter together. Our strong joint Rugby World Cup bid for 2023 is a very tangible example of where we are working together against international competition to win occasions like that.

While both jurisdictions on the island may approach some issues from differing perspectives, such as the UK's membership of the EU, we share an interest in how that debate progresses and ensuring that the best interests of the island as a whole are protected. There are wider EU and global challenges that we will be better equipped to manage working collaboratively together than separately. The Government's position here is clear: we want the UK to remain a central part of the EU. This is because of the interdependence of our two economies and labour markets, the €1 billion trade in goods and services between the two countries and the strong links between our two societies. Critically, however, we should remember that the EU has been an active political and financial supporter of the Northern Ireland peace process. This support continues through the EU PEACE and INTERREG programmes, which could see almost €500 million invested in the region for the period to 2020. It is essential that we take all steps, and remove all barriers, to ensure that we can maximise the draw-down under these and other EU programmes like Horizon 2020.

Let me also say this. The months ahead are not a time for Northern Ireland to be without a functioning Executive and Assembly with proactive institutions that can grasp opportunities and face up to responsibilities and challenges. These are important times for the United Kingdom. If one looks at Scotland, one sees a significantly changed political landscape, an agenda of greater devolution and an ongoing dialogue about the balance of powers between Westminster and Edinburgh. If we look elsewhere in the UK, we see proposals for greater empowerment of regions, not just in Wales, but potentially the creation of other economic powerhouses. The UK itself is rethinking its relationship with the EU in a fundamental way. All of these developments have potentially profound impacts for Northern Ireland. They are the business of government and are issues that people will expect their Ministers and their elected representatives to be monitoring, managing and influencing.

This brings me to the Stormont House Agreement. On 20 January this year, there were statements in this House on Northern Ireland. That debate took place in the context of the achievement of the Stormont House Agreement of December 2014. There was a broad welcome in the House that day for the Stormont House Agreement and recognition of its importance in terms of helping to set a path back to stability and to effective partnership Government in Belfast. I thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, for his sterling efforts over ten weeks in contributing to that debate along with everybody else who played his or her part.

Such agreements are hard won. They are a demonstration of a collective effort from across the political spectrum in the North, with the support of the two governments, for the sake of the greater good. The Stormont House Agreement was no different in this regard. In the weeks that followed the agreement, serious work was done by all parties to begin to implement the agreement and to meet the commitments made on 23 December.

We have continued to act in good faith and in the hope and expectation that others will also. However, what is very clear is that, if key parties to the agreement withdraw their support for the financial package that underpinned it, the totality of the agreement is at risk and the very purpose of the agreement - to restore stability and effective partnership Government in Belfast - is undermined. Unfortunately, this is the current position. The ongoing impasse over welfare reform among the Northern Ireland Executive parties is having a direct impact on the prospects for implementing the Stormont House Agreement in its totality and the positive momentum created by the agreement is being eroded as a consequence.

The Irish Government has always been clear that specific circumstances pertain in Northern Ireland. That is why, last year, we committed to the Stormont House talks process and why we continue on an ongoing basis to commit to, build on and protect the principles and institutions of the foundational Good Friday Agreement. The Stormont House Agreement explicitly recognises that there are additional costs which are created in a divided society such as Northern Ireland. I am in no doubt that the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, recognises this also, which is why the agreement provided additional spending power of almost £2 billion provided by the British Government.

Like many other governments, the British Government will face budgetary challenges in the coming years which will no doubt affect Northern Ireland acutely. Clearly, therefore, stability and an effective power-sharing government in Belfast will be an essential backdrop to any serious, concerted approach to advocate for and address Northern Ireland's specific needs, to repairing the divisions of the past and to building a prosperous future for all the people of the island coming out of 30 years of conflict.

What I have not seen in recent months is the leadership and strategic vision required by those who are now delaying implementation of the agreement in its totality. The Stormont House Agreement is an overwhelmingly positive agreement for Northern Ireland and North-South relations. Delay and indecision serve no useful purpose and damage Northern Ireland's short-term and longer term prospects. We recall that the twin aims of the agreement were advancing the reconciliation agenda and economic growth. The Irish Government remains fully committed to both and the implementation of the agreement as part of that commitment.

I raised issues relating to the legacy of the past with the Prime Minister because I am also ambitious about reconciliation. The improved Irish-British relationship has been both a catalyst for positive change in Northern Ireland and a beneficiary of that change. In May I visited Armagh where I met the Kingsmill families who had suffered so grievously. I have also met representatives of the Dublin and Monaghan families who continue to seek access to information held by the British Government on that appalling atrocity. Last month ongoing work by the Independent Commission on the Location of Victims' Remains to find the bodies of the disappeared - those murdered and buried secretly by the IRA - resulted in the finding of human remains in County Meath, finally giving some form of closure to the families of those killed. Earlier today we convened together in this House in solidarity with the Ballymurphy families, who have been present for some time in the Visitors Gallery.

The legacy of the Troubles rests heavily on so many families across the island. In the Good Friday Agreement the parties committed to a fresh start and the achievement of reconciliation as the best way to honour those who had died and who had suffered. In my meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, last month we reaffirmed the importance of establishing a new, credible and comprehensive framework to deal with Troubles-related deaths. Implementation of the Stormont House Agreement is key to this essential work. In late 2014 I met Mairia Cahill and heard her harrowing account of abuse and the brutal reality of IRA paramilitary control within her community. The emerging picture of systemic sexual abuse by paramilitary organisations and how it was handled is a different but nonetheless horrific manifestation of those dark days to which we can never return.

The work of reconciliation and economic progress in the North are hampered by episodes of law breaking such as we saw last Monday in Belfast. Some people have commented that the current political impasse in fiscal issues is a form of progress as it relates to real world political issues, not issues relating to sectarian differences, yet we still have people burning effigies of democratically elected representatives and flags and symbols of identity. We have people trapped in their own homes, afraid to leave their houses. We have entire new generations growing up behind walls and still have an unacceptable level of hate crime and sectarianism in Northern Ireland, not just in one community. We were supposed to be seeing a normalisation of politics and society in Northern Ireland. I condemn these activities last weekend.

So many years after the Good Friday Agreement, sadly, there is still a great distance to travel. The Stormont House Agreement can help us to get there. I call on all parties in this House and all representatives, as well as all other parties to the agreements, to honour their word and meet their commitments in full.

Deputy Eamon Gilmore

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate on behalf of the Labour Party. I am sharing time with Deputy Robert Dowds.

Northern Ireland has been on the political agenda of this House for all of our lives. In 1989, when I came into the House, 81 people were killed in the Northern Ireland Troubles. It is difficult at this remove and for younger people to appreciate the horror and scale of the slaughter that was occurring in Northern Ireland at the time. I also remember the attempts by the IRA to blow up the rail line between Belfast and Dublin. I was involved in the peace train initiative to stand against this and promote travel, co-operation and relationships, North and South. Fortunately, great progress has been made since and Northern Ireland is now a much more peaceful, democratic and lawful society, but there are still challenges to be overcome. The scenes of rioting and violence following the 12 July commemorations in Belfast earlier this week, albeit on a much less dramatic scale than in recent years, are reminders of this, as is agreeing structures for dealing with outstanding issues arising from the Good Friday Agreement such as the legacy of the past. In this respect, I join speakers in the previous session in welcoming the all-party motion which was endorsed by the House. I acknowledge the remarks made by the Tánaiste on my own contribution to that issue during the period of time I held office.

It is not just what we call on others to do but what we do ourselves. It is important to lead by example in promoting reconciliation and dealing with issues of the past. I was honoured to be the first Irish Government Minister to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Belfast on Remembrance Sunday and I am glad that the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, has continued that work. In a speech I made at Cambridge University two years ago I also said the Irish Government was prepared to address Unionist suspicions that during the Troubles elements of the State had somehow supported the activities of the IRA. Following publication of the Smithwick report later that year I followed through on this by apologising on behalf of the State to the Breen and Buchanan families for the role played by individual members of the Garda in the murder of two RUC members by the IRA. I did this because I believed words must be followed by actions. If we are to promote true reconciliation on the island, there is an onus on all of those in positions of responsibility to show leadership.

I regret that the political process in Northern Ireland remains somewhat deadlocked. It is welcome that the Stormont House Agreement, built on the formula developed under the chairmanship of Dr. Richard Haass and Professor Meghan O'Sullivan, was made. However, I share the concerns expressed by the Tánaiste that the package of measures agreed are ebbing further away from the original Eames-Bradley proposals of five years ago, which remain the most comprehensive set of ideas and mechanisms for addressing the legacy of the past and promoting reconciliation which should serve to guide all parties. It is inevitable that, because of the length of the horror and the atrocities that occurred in Northern Ireland, we spend a lot of our time addressing issues of the past and that will, rightly, remain on the agenda for a considerable time to come.

However, it is also important to look to the future.

The Good Friday Agreement is now more than 17 years old and one of its big opportunities was the peace dividend. This was the potential for economic development on the island on the back of the Agreement. That opportunity was interrupted somewhat by the impact of the economic crisis that occurred since 2008. Now that we have emerged from that economic crisis and the economy is growing again, the time has come to look afresh at the development of an all-island economy. When one looks at the impact of globalisation around the world, particularly when one looks at the efforts being made on almost every continent to break down borders and harmonise regulations and economic activity, and the degree and height to which it has been brought on the European continent, it is something of an anomaly that on this relatively small island we still effectively have two systems. A person travelling between Belfast and Dublin changes currency and the way in which distance is measured is different. There are two sets of regulatory measurements and two social welfare systems. There are two systems for almost everything. We need to look at the practical steps which need to be taken to facilitate the development of all-island economic activity.

Apart from eliminating the barriers to all-island economic activity, there are two developments or contexts which are important. The first is the growth of the population. The population of the island, at approximately 6.5 million, is at its highest since the time of the Famine. At the rate at which it is growing, in all probability in the next two decades the population will exceed that on the island at the time of the Famine. We need to be preparing for that growth in population. There are big implications in terms of housing and employment provision and the development and provision of infrastructure and social services. It makes sense that the preparation for this be done on an all-island basis. It makes no sense in the modern world, in the context of what we see happening in a much more globalised economic environment, that it is being done separately. The appropriate location for that work to be performed is the North-South Ministerial Council. I accept and acknowledge that considerable progress has been made by the Council. Work has been done, for example, in hospital provision and areas of education and transport. The Taoiseach referred to the potential for the development of the A5 roadway to the north west. There is enormous potential in the North-South Ministerial Council in leading what is really an all-island project in terms of how we prepare and develop an economy within two decades and create jobs for the size of population we are likely to have in that period of time.

That agenda is important in the changing political context on these islands. The issue of Scottish independence is very much on the political agenda. The possibility - I put it no stronger than this - of a British exit from the European Union is also something which is going to be addressed in the next couple of years. If either or both of these were to happen, the political context and the relationship between the countries on these islands would change dramatically, which gives rise to an imperative to consider our future development and the future development of economic activity for farmers, those in industry, research, public services and so on across the island. I encourage the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to continue their good work on this issue. I commend them for what they have done and are doing. I ask, however, that the issue of the practical outworking of what is needed to facilitate the growth of an all-island economy and the implications for population growth across the island be looked at through the North-South Ministerial Council, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government.

Deputy Robert Dowds

I support the remarks of the Taoiseach and my previous party leader, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, whom I commend for the work he did in his role as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and, in particular, in dealing with problems in Northern Ireland.

There are so many things we still need to address in the context of Northern Ireland. There are still the historical drags on us, including issues the British Government have not dealt with such as the situation affecting the people from Ballymurphy who were in the Visitors Gallery earlier today or collusion with loyalists. I could give a longer list. The same is to be seen on the Nationalist side in the issues Sinn Féin still needs to address. Similarly, on the Unionist side we see an unwillingness in many respects to address their role in the conflict and how they contributed to its development. The result is one in extremis; unfortunately, the extremes have quite a pull on what is happening and people are still trapped in their own minds. In that regard, I can think of two examples.

I remember talking to some of the loyalists involved in the stand-off at Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast. When I pointed out to them that they were playing into the hands of extreme Republicans, as well as risking people's lives in staying there, they acknowledged this to be true but insisted on their right to march, even though it was dragging society back. It could also be seen on the other side when people canvassing in Newry were asked on the doorstep not about health services or the economy but their attitude to the naming of Raymond McCreesh Park. Unfortunately, on both sides, these mindsets drag us back a great deal, which is to be regretted.

As the Taoiseach and Deputy Éamon Gilmore said, it is really important that those who control the political levers, whether they be Northern Ireland parties, parties in the Republic or Britain, do their utmost to bring Northern Ireland forward economically and socially in the context of the impact on the whole island, North and South, because ní neart go cur le chéile. There is strength in unity. We should be able to do this while at the same time respecting our different traditions.

I see myself as very much coming from the Protestant-republican tradition that began with Tone and has been followed through the generations. It is a thin tradition without a great deal of support. In saying this I also reckon there is a very great Unionist tradition in my background. While I do not share that tradition, I recognise its right to exist and prosper. As someone who has lived all of his life in the Republic, I appeal to people on both sides and throughout the island to see what it is we share and drive forward and make the island a better place for all of us on which to live, North and South.

Deputy Micheál Martin

I believe this debate is too short. Originally the debate was only going to provide for five minutes for spokespeople and I gather we had to make representations to get a longer debate. Not only is the debate too short but squeezing it into a packed agenda at the end of the parliamentary term is unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, in many ways it illustrates the approach the Government has taken to the North in the past four years.

While today we have two sets of statements concerning Northern Ireland, the fact is that over the past four and a half years Northern Ireland related issues have been increasingly ignored. With the exception of the work of a handful of journalists there has been little coverage of Northern developments outside of major incidents, such as this week's sectarian riot. At the core of this has been the undeniable disengagement of the Dublin and London Governments and the behaviour of the largest Northern parties in seeking to exclude others from legitimate debate. The sad reality is that the situation in Northern Ireland is now acutely serious. The slow but steady progress of previous years has been replaced by a growing sense of alienation and crisis. The many economic and social opportunities opened up by peace and agreed institutions are being lost, and with this the core challenge of reconciliation is sidelined.

The disengagement of our Government and the Cameron Government is something I have been challenging for years. I take no satisfaction from the fact that the crises I predicted from following this policy have all materialised. There is no question that root cause of the current problems has been the approach of the Democratic Unionist Party-Sinn Féin tandem. These parties have sought to maximise party advantage in government rather than work in a consensual way. Cases of sectarian funding, the abuse of expenses and the marginalisation of day-to day issues continue to mount. No one can now question the impact that the DUP-Sinn Féin Administration, which has systematically excluded other parties from playing a meaningful role, has had on the public.

Last month, the latest Northern Ireland Life and Times survey report was published. This has tracked political and social attitudes since 1998 and is the most detailed work of its type carried out anywhere in Europe. The latest survey shows a major deterioration of public faith in institutions and a belief that the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive are more detached than ever. Some 66% of people are dissatisfied with the work of MLAs. This is similar across age, social class and national identity. Fully 76% of people say that the Assembly has made no difference or given people less of a say in Northern issues. A total of 84% say the Assembly has achieved only a little or nothing at all. When asked what the Assembly and Executive should be focused on, people did not choose political issues but highlighted the economy and the health service. Their overall demand was for parties to make "devolution work in a way that is fair to all".

In most areas there has been an undeniable disimprovement in attitudes towards politics. This traces directly to the manner in which the Assembly and Executive have operated under DUP and Sinn Féin control. One good illustration of the impact of this was seen in the recent UK general election, when over 40% of people did not vote. Northern Ireland has gone from having one of the highest turnouts in these elections to having one of the lowest. Much of this reduced turnout is concentrated in marginal communities and among the supporters of other parties. These people see themselves as excluded from all policy discussions and are drifting away from political engagement. The long-term damage this could cause in Northern Ireland is profound.

It is not only in political attitude where we can see a deteriorating situation. While the two parties have worked hard to divide the spoils of power between them, they have presided over a marked deterioration of the economic and social situation of Northern Ireland. Last year, Deputy First Minister, Mr. McGuinness, attacked me on this matter and claimed to have delivered economically for Northern Ireland. At the recent Ard-Fheis of his party he said it again and added the patently false claim that "Sinn Féin doesn’t do austerity". Rates of poverty, child poverty, in particular, in Northern Ireland have continued to worsen, with the gap with the UK expanding. Over 46% of children in west Belfast are living in poverty - not only at risk of poverty but actually in poverty. Pensioner poverty in Northern Ireland is one third higher than in the United Kingdom. Tackling this through an ambitious development plan should be the issue dominating Northern discussions but it is, at most, marginal. The current development plan is limited and more about appearing to do something than actually doing it. It was agreed by the DUP and Sinn Féin with London without even the courtesy of mentioning it to the Dublin Government beforehand. There is no proposal to unleash the vast potential of cross-Border economic development and no economic vision for Northern Ireland. The provision of a blueprint for economic opportunity and tackling poverty are desperately needed in the North, yet the largest parties are focused on everything but this. It is striking that Sinn Féin, during the past 17 years, has chosen never to nominate a person to hold one of the principal economic ministries.

The current political impasse is the logical outcome of an approach that is focused on maximising political positioning rather than operating in the spirit of co-operation which the people voted for. It is not simply about the UK Government's welfare policies. When Sinn Féin signed up to the Stormont House Agreement, it signed up to implement these policies with some minor changes. What we are seeing at the moment is a desperate attempt by Sinn Féin to find a way to allow these cuts through while still claiming to be against them. This is the party which is savagely cutting back on school staffing and threatening 50 schools but still delivering speeches claiming "Sinn Féin doesn't do austerity". This is the same party which claims in the South it will abolish property tax while voting to increase it in Northern Ireland.

Let no one be in any doubt: the welfare cuts are wrong and will cause serious damage in Northern Ireland, just as the other cuts which Sinn Féin and the DUP are enforcing without complaint are causing serious damage already. When in office, Fianna Fáil said to the British Government - and we have said it since - that London has to understand that it must invest in overcoming entrenched division and conflict. Northern Ireland is a special case and deserves extra leeway. This should be our Government's position but, unfortunately, it is not.

The crisis goes well beyond the welfare issues. In fact, implementation of almost all the important issues addressed in the Stormont House Agreement has been delayed. Arrangements to allow the effective review of policies by parties other than the DUP and Sinn Féin were supposed to be in place in March. This has not happened. The commission on flags, identity, culture and tradition was supposed to be established last month and legislation on parades was due to be proposed. This has not happened and another contentious marching season is under way. A civic advisory panel was supposed to be established last month. Again, this has not happened. The Budget Act (Northern Ireland) is not required for any of these measures but they remain frozen. Northern Ireland desperately needs a new impetus for progress. Stagnation and drift is deeply dangerous. It breeds alienation and threatens a return to cycles of sectarian violence, which, at times, seem very close.

A range of concrete steps can and should be taken urgently. The Governments, if they have the will, can take the initiative on these steps and break the deadening grip of the largest parties on the entire process. A new economic and social development plan is required urgently. Entrenched poverty and unemployment must be tackled. Independent of the funding issue, at the least a sense of direction and a demonstration of ambition is required urgently. We need a new energy behind the North-South dimension of the agreement. The lack of interest of the British Government, the party politics of the DUP and Sinn Féin and the lack of urgency from our Government has reduced the North-South dimension to a series of meetings and photo opportunities. All parts of this island are suffering because of the failure to unleash the full potential for co-operation on economic and service development. There are individual examples of progress but they represent only a fraction of the true potential.

For four years we have been hearing about discussions. It is time for action and time to set out specific plans for the development of North-South initiatives, including formal bodies and other initiatives. There is an overpowering case for seeking a joint Border area economic and social services development plan. A lengthy history of sectarianism and 30 years of an illegitimate campaign of violence have caused damage which cannot simply be wished away. An ambitious Border regional plan is badly required.

We also need a new urgency around challenging sectarianism.

While the majority of people are showing a new commitment to cross-community understanding, there is a substantial minority wedded to a deeply sectarian approach. A renewed anti-sectarian initiative is needed and a start should be made by calling out politicians who use sectarianism to further their own agendas. Mr. Gregory Campbell’s childish mockery of the Irish language was not harmless and the fact that he faced no consequences reflects badly on his party. So, too, does the blatantly sectarian campaign of Sinn Féin in North Belfast in the recent election campaign.

Deputy Robert Dowds

Hear, hear.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Calling on people to vote by religion and get one over on the other side is sectarianism pure and simple, and Sinn Féin should stop trying to find excuses for it. The failure of political leadership to assist properly in the fight against sectarianism and to promote a genuine spirit of equality was demonstrated in Deputy Adams’s disgraceful comments last year when he talked about “breaking the bastards” and said equality is “the Trojan horse of the entire republican strategy”. He can do his usual twisting and turning, claiming that black is white and vice versa, but his words are on the record.

Equality is not a strategy and it is not something to be exploited. It is the fundamental and core foundation of the entire strategy of the people of Ireland. When a party of government in Northern Ireland speaks so cynically about equality, it is inevitable that the others will continue to resist it. The equality agenda remains essential and needs the Governments to insist on the implementation of past agreements.

Addressing issues of the past should not be an option; it is essential. So far, the Irish Government, due to initiatives taken by past Governments, is the only party to the process that has been willing to be fully open and honest about its failings. Everyone else has been taking the position of demanding openness from others while protecting their own.

The evidence of state collusion with loyalists in grotesque sectarian crimes is overwhelming. It must be investigated independently and the families of victims must be given the right to know what happened and who was responsible. Equally, collusion with elements of the Provisional IRA must be investigated. Significant collusion between state security forces and elements within the Provisional IRA did happen. Many people were murdered, wrongly, as a result of that. There are cases being pursued in this regard to the present day.

The Dáil has called for a full investigation into the revelations about the ongoing protection by the Provisional IRA of its own members when accused of child abuse. This is a problem that Deputy Adams has admitted was known about. While Sinn Féin did its usual trick of calling for co-operation with the justice system, yet again no one has come forward. Sinn Féin has been able to expel people for wanting to deselect a Deputy but cannot find anyone to take action against in regard to the systematic covering up of child abuse within the provisional movement.

Of course, there are limits to what can be done but our Government has a duty to demand a proper independent inquiry so that victims North and South can come forward and begin a process of healing, which must start with accountability for those who abused them and those who worked to prevent justice being done.

The Parliament promised Mairia Cahill, Paudie McGahon and other brave victims that we would not rest until their abusers were held to account, and we must honour this promise.

The increasingly dysfunctional political situation in Stormont needs to be tackled. Growing detachment and disengagement from politics is the direct and inevitable outcome of how the DUP and Sinn Féin are controlling the Assembly and Executive. They are focused on obtaining as much party political advantage as possible. Other parties are routinely excluded from discussions and the system is milked for party advantage. Northern Ireland has half the population of Wales but its leaders have twice the number of publicly funded political advisers. Ministers of both ruling parties have been found to favour their own in decisions, with a Sinn Féin Minister, Mr. Conor Murphy, found by a court to have made a major appointment on a sectarian basis.

Through the tenacity of journalists, a large-scale abuse of political funding has been revealed. None of this would be possible under the legislation in operation here for nearly two decades.

Deputy Adams never sat a day in Westminster but took over €1 million in expenses during the last decade. BBC’s “Spotlight” found that over €1 million had been funnelled by Sinn Féin MLAs to Research Services Ireland Ltd, but was unable to find details of any research work carried out by the company. This is on top of the money funnelled by Sinn Féin to fictitious cultural organisations. There is an urgent need for the Governments to demand a tightening of the controls on public funding of politics and for the establishment of controls along the lines of those operated here, which would make such abuses illegal.

The revelations in regard to Cerberus and the NAMA portfolio have rightly led to concerns about political involvement. The memorandum of understanding between the Northern Ireland Executive and PIMCO illustrates an incredible degree of political engagement and official involvement in the sale of the Northern Ireland loan book of NAMA. It is incredible that Sinn Féin would not have understood or would not have been fully aware of what was going on throughout the entire saga.

In the referendums of 1998, the people of this island chose to support a new way forward. They acknowledged our shared future and set all parties a challenge of working together for the common good. Too often, they have failed. Unless we see new energy and commitment, we will continue with the cycle of ongoing crises, and profound problems will be left to fester. We need renewed engagement by the Governments. We need a new vision for the economic and social development of the North and the Border region in general. We need a concerted effort to challenge sectarianism, starting with the casual sectarianism of political parties. We need a determined effort to sort out a dysfunctional and deeply cynical approach by the dominant parties. The peace process was and remains a great victory for constitutional republicans on this island, who did everything possible and many things thought impossible to get the paramilitaries to put down their guns and end their illegitimate campaign. However, the work is not over. Much more is required, and unless we are willing to commit to this effort we could make an error of genuinely historic proportions.

Deputy Gerry Adams

Bhí sé sin an-ghreannmhar ach sin an scéal. Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis seo a labhairt ar chúrsaí tábhachtacha a bhaineann leis na Sé Chontae. Táim an-sásta leis an méid a dúirt an Teachta Gilmore. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis as ucht an obair a rinne sé.

Sinn Féin has called consistently for debates such as this to be a regular feature of Dáil business. The reality is that it will be squeezed and we will be dealing with a range of serious issues without adequate time to get to grips with most of them properly. That is not satisfactory. We have proposed that there be a monthly Dáil debate on the North. I urge the Taoiseach, even at this late stage, to agree to this proposal. Leis seo bheadh súil ghéar á choimeád ar phróiseas na síochána.

The peace process is undeniably the most significant political development on this island since partition. Let us remind ourselves that the partition of Ireland was both illegitimate and immoral. As James Connolly predicted, it triggered a carnival of reaction and created two conservative states on this island, ruled by two elites who entrenched their own power and privilege to the detriment of ordinary citizens. The campaign of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the late 1960s for equality in housing, education and employment and at elections was met with a violent response by the Stormont regime, supported by the British Government and tolerated by the Irish Government, and decades of conflict ensued.

Decades later, the Good Friday Agreement marked an historic shift in politics on this island by establishing a firm foundation from which it is now possible to continue building a future based on equality. For the first time since partition, there is an international agreement involving the two Governments, in addition to Nationalist, republican and Unionist parties, on a way forward. The agreement is one thing but implementing it is an entirely different country. As the events of recent days in Belfast have underlined, the peace process needs constant attention by the Government and political parties here.

The future of the political structures is currently in a very precarious position. In the 17 years since the Agreement was achieved, it has faced many challenges. Many commitments in it have not been implemented fully. The Taoiseach will know many were not implemented under the previous Government.

A commitment made at Weston Park to investigate the murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane has not been implemented. In the St Andrews Agreement, a commitment was made-----

(Interruptions).

Deputy Gerry Adams

Gabh mo leithscéal. Ní chloisfidh sibh mé ag caint má tá sibh ag caint. Ba mhaith liom giota beag ordú, le do thoil.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Tóg go bog é. Ar aghaidh leat.

Deputy Gerry Adams

In the St. Andrews Agreement, a commitment was made to Acht na Gaeilge. This has not been implemented but the current determination of the British Government and Unionist parties to implement hugely destructive cuts to the fabric of society in the North represents one of the gravest threats yet to the institutions. Prior to last week's British Tory Budget, £1.5 billion had already been slashed from the Executive's budget in addition to cuts to welfare spending at Westminster. This austerity agenda has caused hardship for many families and impacted badly on public services. Sinn Féin’s priorities have been to ensure efficient functioning of the power sharing institutions. People should remember that we are in partnership with some parties that do not want to be in partnership with us. We have endeavoured to create jobs and reduce unemployment, to protect the most vulnerable in society and to bring forward working budgets that ensure the delivery of front-line services. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, MLA, has played a central role in the Executive's successful job creation strategy that has seen unemployment figures falling. During the negotiations at Stormont House, we tried to strengthen these objectives by working to create a coalition against Tory cuts within the Executive and wider society and by setting out an alternative to austerity.

Part of this was agreeing to the budget for 2015-16. This was done by Sinn Féin in good faith in the context of a finalised budget with no further cuts and in anticipation of the delivery of all aspects of the Stormont House Agreement. Last month, Sinn Féin agreed to give conditional support to technical legislation giving effect to the budget that we and the other parties had agreed during the Stormont House negotiations last Christmas. Sinn Féin's support for the Stormont House Agreement was based on full protection for all successful claims for social security benefits under the control of the Executive for the next six years. In February, the DUP defaulted on this part of the agreement. Sinn Féin’s decision to conditionally support legislation for the budget provided a space in which solutions could be found.

However, the ability of the parties locally to do this has been severely undermined by four years of Tory cuts and the cuts promised by the British Chancellor, George Osborne. These are cuts to the income of working families and further cuts to public services. This British budget is a clear assault on working families and those on low pay. Instead of austerity, the Northern Ireland Executive needs a sustainable and workable budget, investment and powers to grow the economy and deliver public services. Tá an seasamh a ghlac Sinn Féin ar an gceist seo de réir a chéile an-soiléir. Sinn Féin is very clear that it is opposed to the policy of austerity in any part of this island. Watch this space - we will not be agents of cuts imposed on citizens in the North at the behest of the Tories. Others who may be prepared to perform this role should be mindful that these cuts will affect Unionist and loyalist citizens as well as everyone else.

Sinn Féin wants the political institutions to work and to deliver for citizens. Despite all the difficulties, the Executive, the Assembly and all-Ireland institutions have worked better for citizens than the years of direct rule by unaccountable British ministers and decades of one-party rule by the Ulster Unionist Party so our preference is for the current institutions to stay in place but this cannot be at any price. Sinn Féin does not expect conservative governments in Dublin or London to change their political or ideological positions. That is fair enough. They are both wedded to the austerity agenda. However, we do expect them, particularly the Government here, to accept the special circumstances of the North as a society coming out of conflict. I welcome the private remarks made to me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. I do not know if he said it publicly. He said that he accepts that the North is a special place. We expect both governments to press and accept the need for an economic dividend to the necessary process of peace-building and change. We demand that they fully implement the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements. I said earlier, during the debate on the motion on the events at Ballymurphy, that both governments should implement those elements of the Stormont House Agreement that deal with the past and legacy issues. The two governments can and should proceed with establishing the historical investigations unit, improving legacy inquests and establishing the independent commission on information retrieval.

Sinn Féin will endeavour to maintain front-line services and strive to protect vulnerable citizens but the Irish Government needs to play a more active and constructive role in the North. It will find that it will be welcomed within Unionism. Thinking Unionism knows that the way forward is not through burning effigies on 12 July. It knows that the way forward is through more tolerance, respect and co-operation. They see that as working to our mutual advantage. I have accused this Government in the past of being detached in its approach but it is not unique. It was also a feature of previous Administrations, including those of which Deputy Martin was a member despite their role in the beginning of the peace process. We need to be invigorated and actively engaged with the parties in the North but most particularly, engaged as with the Government in London.

It has been my experience that citizens in this State expect the Oireachtas to be proactively involved in the peace process. Citizens in the North expect the same. There is a partitionist mindset. I know some people are offended when I say this but it is at the heart of the work of the Dublin establishment. The Dáil needs to break out of this partitionist mindset. Any government that truly wanted a united Ireland, and I have yet to meet one, would work towards it and understand this means the unity of all the people, including those who see themselves as British. It means pursuing every avenue to promote greater all-Ireland co-operation and working to build relationships on the basis of equality between all the people on this island.

There is also an ongoing need to enlist the support from our friends internationally, including those in the US. It is no accident that Irish America and its representatives have often been more informed, involved and progressive on these issues than successive governments here have been. It means genuine outreach efforts to Unionists on the basis of equality and undoing ingrained partitionist thinking on the part of policy makers here. When one thinks of the Office of the Taoiseach, we should see someone who is a champion of the peace process and a champion of the people in the North. I do not mind the slings and arrows from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour or other parties here but the peace process should be above party politics.

With the honourable exception of Albert Reynolds, it has been my experience that governments here have adapted easily into the role of junior partner. Leaving aside politics, it baffles me as an Irish person how we do not stand up for our own rights as a nation and do not deal with the British on the basis of equality. This is always what I have tried to bring to engagements in which I have been involved without being dogmatic or domineering because the British always respect their national interests and act accordingly. I have previously said that at the Stormont negotiations, the British government was allowed to set the agenda and the pace of negotiations. I urge political leaders here to accept that the success and stability of the peace and political process in the North and the all-island institutions are bigger than any point scoring or other political machinations in this State.

I am always torn between ignoring what Deputy Martin says and responding to him because his remarks are usually negative, unhelpful and ill-informed. They are not so much ill-informed because he knows the story but deliberately and maliciously dishonest.

He decries events in the North-----

Deputy Brendan Smith

That is certainly dishonest.

Deputy Gerry Adams

That begs the question as to what is he doing about it. He sits back and lists a litany of things that are wrong in the North, but he does not tell us what he is doing about it. Unlike Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin has a mandate on both parts of the island. We are also consistent. We are not the ones who think the good old IRA was the class of republican from which Fianna Fáil sprung and that they were all good guys and that those of our generation were all bad people. We do not accept this. We are not saying everything they did was right because patently it was not, but we stand with Terence MacSwiney and also Bobby Sands. We stand with Markievicz and also Máire Drumm and Mairéad Farrell-----

Deputy Micheál Martin

Markievicz was the first president of Fianna Fáil. The Deputy is misappropriating her yet again.

Deputy Gerry Adams

In other words, we are not revisionists.

Deputy Dessie Ellis

Deputy Micheál Martin does not know what is republican.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Of course, I would not know; only the Deputy knows.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Deputy Gerry Adams has the floor, please.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Ask Scapaticci and he might tell the Deputy what republicanism is.

Deputy Brendan Smith

Collusion.

Deputy Gerry Adams

I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will give me extra time because he gave the previous speaker some.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I suppose I will have to do so.

Deputy Gerry Adams

The example has been set. We are not revisionists. One of the disturbing aspects of Deputy Micheál Martin's contribution was his departure from the wide pro-agreement consensus across the island in recent years. On more than one occasion he has sought to denigrate the political institutions in the North and to erect new barriers to Sinn Féin's full and equal participation-----

Deputy Brendan Smith

The Deputy is now rewriting history.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Does he want us to be subservient to his position?

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Deputy Gerry Adams has the floor and is to continue without interruption, please.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Everything is by consensus in the Sinn Féin narrative. We will not allow Deputy Gerry Adams to rewrite history.

Deputy Gerry Adams

At least allow me to speak.

(Interruptions).

Deputy Gerry Adams

What I want to encourage the leader of Fianna Fáil to do-----

Deputy Micheál Martin

The truth hurts the Deputy.

Deputy Gerry Adams

What I want to appeal to him to do, for the third time, is to organise his party in the North. There are people in Ballymurphy who are waiting; there are people on the Bogside who are waiting; there are people in Crossmaglen who cannot sleep at night at the prospect of it coming North-----

Deputy Brendan Smith

.They cannot sleep, including Paul Quinn's family-----

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

One voice, please.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Ask the Quinn family about it.

Deputy Gerry Adams

Fine Gael should so the same, as should the Labour Party. The peace process is the most important political project on the island. It is through the building of all-Ireland sectors as part of a single island economy, including the environment, health, energy, education and agriculture, that peace will be developed, not least along the Border corridor where real co-operation can be built among neighbours. All aspects, including the economic dividend, should be nurtured.

This is a time of change in the union. I refer to the status of the United Kingdom, mar dhea, developments in Scotland with, perhaps, more to come in the time ahead, the British Government's commitment to holding a referendum on membership of the European Union, all of which present challenges but also opportunities. Therefore, the Government needs to be fully and consistently engaged in a strategic manner, in keeping with its constitutional obligations, as well as its responsibilities under a series of agreements from the Good Friday Agreement onwards. I would like to think this is only one in a series of debates for as long as the Taoiseach is in government.

Deputy Clare Daly

I propose to share my time with Deputies Mick Wallace and Paul Murphy.

The discussion thus far shows that electoral considerations down here are more important to some Deputies than the actual reality on the ground in Northern Ireland. I am happy to talk about the situation there. I am privileged to be part of a cross-party group of Deputies and Senators who have taken it on themselves in the past while to engage in multiple visits to prisons of Northern Ireland, especially Maghaberry Prison, to deal with issues of injustice. I highlight the failure of prison management to address the issues flowing from its failure to implement the stocktake of Maghaberry Prison agreement which is seriously destabilising in the North. I am beginning to wonder whether it wants a heavy price to be paid for it. We meet loyalist and Nationalist prisoners and, in some ways, their concerns are similar. Both groups believe they have nobody to represent them. Loyalist prisoners believe republican prisoners have everything their own way, that because of the peace process some voices in the nationalist community are now in the mainstream and that their issues are being addressed. One then meets republican prisoners who think heir views have been sold out on.

It is against that backdrop that we need to look at the scandal which has convulsed Northern society in recent weeks, with the revelations in the NAMA scandal. To my mind, what we have in Northern Ireland is an unusual arrangement, a dysfunctional society which operates in a sort of sectarian balancing act, with both groups claiming to represent the viewpoint of their community, but actually ordinary people in both communities are being left behind. When revelations come into the public domain about the upper echelons of the Northern political system being linked with big business and massive profiteering at the expense of the taxpayer, that is going to have political ramifications. It is a small part of the island and I honestly wonder how such behaviour could have gone unnoticed. The only answer I can give is that it did not go unnoticed but that perhaps people on both sides of the sectarian divide, diplomatically in Britain or the South, felt it was better to have certain people in place rather than have the process undermined. If that is the case, it is a very dangerous and unhelpful attitude. It is quite clear that Northern politicians have been very involved in the NAMA scandal from the beginning, despite the protestations of Coulter today.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (Deputy Charles Flanagan)

That is scurrilous.

Deputy Clare Daly

There has been an attempt made by NAMA to state the Project Eagle portfolio was a poor one, but the reality is that it was the biggest transaction in the history of the State. It was not a poor portfolio. The idea that we could not have got more money for it is, quite simply, laughable. Not only did it not get an extra €1 billion for it, it did not even recover the amount it had paid for the portfolio to begin with. Does the Minister not think this strange, if we compare it to, for example, the purchase of the Esat licence by Mr. Denis O'Brien? The issue at the heart of that purchase which led to a tribunal was not necessarily the price paid but that corrupt payments had been made to a politician to get the contract. Similar allegations have been made in this instance.

Deputy Charles Flanagan

The Deputy is making them.

Deputy Clare Daly

I have not. They are not matters in dispute. It is on public record at the Committee of Public Accounts and has been confirmed by the parties that €15 million was set aside. The legal firm Tughan's has confirmed that it retrieved the sum of €7 million. It was supposedly only employed for four weeks. Are complex legal arrangements involved? They must have been very complex to receive a payment of €7 million for four weeks work, yet it does not raise a concern for the Government. The Minister must be joking; it is an absolute scandal. It serves certain people's interests to have the Committee of Public Accounts or the Northern Ireland finance committee looking at these affairs because they do not have the expertise to examine them. If that expertise was available, why do we have a banking inquiry? Why not let the finance committee look at the issue? Why was there a separate investigation into the matter of penalty points and the Guerin commission considering that the Committee of Public Accounts had already looked at it? These are big money projects which have a huge impact on the taxpayer in the State. I really think the Government should be asking these questions when NAMA took the decision to remove PIMCO from the process. What statutes were breached? Did they include the NAMA Act or the foreign corrupt practices Act in the United States? This story is only stating and it has very great potential to further destabilise the situation in the North. It will also transfer to this side of the Border.

Deputy Charles Flanagan

That is the Deputy's real agenda.

Deputy Clare Daly

To destabilise the peace process.

Deputy Mick Wallace

I also believe things will improve for the Republic and the North of Ireland if there is more clarity about what happened with Project Eagle. I have a number of questions the Government should deal with; after all, NAMA is an agent of the State.

Mr. Frank Daly has confirmed that Mr. Frank Cushnahan, formerly a member of NAMA's Northern Ireland advisory committee, was one of the central participants and a prospective beneficiary of the PIMCO fee arrangement. A question naturally arises as to what service he had rendered to PIMCO to justify his inclusion in this arrangement and when. Did he provide external parties with confidential information which would provide them with an advantage over other bidders? Is it not an implied term that Mr. Cushnahan, through his former association with NAMA and subsequent involvement with a fund interested in the purchase of NAMA loans, would be placed in a position that would give an unfair advantage to PIMCO?

Why was PIMCO prepared to split £15 million between Belfast solicitors, Tughans, New York lawyers, Brown and Rudnick, and a former NAMA committee member, Mr. Cushnahan? When exactly did NAMA know of Mr. Cushnahan's involvement with the PIMCO fee arrangement? Why was no comment ever made on this fee arrangement until the Committee of Public Accounts hearing this month?

We are on notice that Mr. Cushnahan operated out of an office in Northern Ireland law firm, Tughans. Why and when did he have an office in Tughans? Tughans could not comment on when he took up the office space and if he was operating from it and making use of its facilities while he was a representative of NAMA.

NAMA has stated Mr. Cushnahan never had access to confidential information. Given that his potential input was deemed worthy of his inclusion in a lucrative fee arrangement with PIMCO, is it not plausible that he was using confidential or insider information to distort and prejudice the bid process in order that PIMCO would benefit from same?

Why did the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, not inform the Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister of this information, or did he? Why did he decide not to intervene in suspending the sale of the NAMA assets in the North to Cerberus, particularly when he was on notice that the prospective sale to Cerberus involved the same group of people who were part of the PIMCO arrangement? NAMA and the Minister were aware that a questionable arrangement had been negotiated between a number of parties which would have prejudiced the open-market bidding process, yet nothing was done to prevent or suspend the determination on the overall sale and bid, even in circumstances where the same law firm acting for PIMCO was acting for the ultimately successful bidder, Cerberus.

Was there no concern on the part of the Minister and NAMA that Brown Rudnick was conflicted in representing Cerberus, the successful bidder in the loan sale, having already represented PIMCO, a company which had entered into a fee arrangement with a former NAMA representative in the very same loan sale? Have the Dublin or London offices of Brown Rudnick acted for debtors or loan or asset purchasers in relation to NAMA previously? If so, for whom did it act? Has any of these deals been off market?

What other dealings has Tughans had with NAMA, either as counsel to NAMA or acting for debtors or other buyers or potential buyers of loans? Was Mr. Cushnahan involved in any other arrangement with prospective bidders for NAMA loan sales prior to the PIMCO revelation?

What role, if any, did Mr. Ron Bolger, former managing partner in KPMG Dublin, as Cerberus' main representative in Ireland, have in this transaction? Did anyone for or on behalf of NAMA ever meet him?

What fees did Cerberus pay A&L Goodbody and Linklaters which, as outlined by Mr. Brendan McDonagh at the Committee of Public Accounts hearing, advised Cerberus until such time as PIMCO was forced to opt out of the bid process? Can it be guaranteed that Brown Rudnick did not enter into a similar fee arrangement with Cerberus for the Northern Ireland loan portfolio?

Mr. Daly advised that it was NAMA's understanding Cerberus had instructed Tughans, only after PIMCO had pulled out of the bid. Can this be confirmed or were other funds using the same law firms concurrently?

Mr. Daly openly stated during the Committee of Public Accounts hearing that NAMA did not have a problem with Brown Rudnick or Tughans. He explained that the issue for NAMA was Mr. Cushnahan's involvement in the PIMCO arrangement. Can this really be its position when Mr. Cushnahan was, in fact, working within the law offices of Tughans? Can NAMA object to Mr. Cushnahan's involvement in the PIMCO arrangement without objecting to Tughans?

Mr. McDonagh asserted at the Committee of Public Accounts hearing that Cerberus had bought the Northern Ireland loan portfolio for £1.241 billion. We have been consistently told by NAMA that the portfolio was sold for significantly more, that is, £1.3 billion sterling. Mr. McDonagh at the Committee of Public Accounts hearing continually erred in outlining that the ultimate sale price was £1.3 billion sterling subsequent to conceding at the very same hearing that the actual number realised was, in fact, nearly £60 million less.

Why did Cerberus change lawyers after PIMCO's withdrawal from the bid? It surely raises question marks when the bidding party determines that its existing representation, Linklaters, one of the world's largest law firms, should be replaced by another firm in the midst of the bidding process. What advantages did Cerberus see in bringing in Brown Rudnick? Did NAMA not think it dubious that this decision was made, particularly in circumstances where Brown Rudnick had been central to the fee arrangement previously negotiated through PIMCO?

There are so many questions the Government needs to answer.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I call Deputy Paul Murphy who will have five minutes because we have been given a little extra time.

Deputy Paul Murphy

In his supposedly emergency budget on 8 July the British Chancellor, Mr. George Osborne, as part of the new all-Tory Government, triumphantly announced measures, sticking the boot into working class and middle class people and again making their struggle to get by even more difficult. He slashed tax credits and housing benefit and maintained public sector wage increases at just 1% for a further four years. Those who will be particularly worse off after his budget will be future parents with more than two children. As a result of his vindictive cuts, many children in larger families will be condemned to greater poverty than those in smaller families.

The Tories have also stated their priority to introduce laws curbing the right to strike, introducing a ban on strikes by public sector workers, unless at least 40% of those eligible to vote vote in favour. This is from a government which crept back into power with the votes of 24% of the electorate. This vicious austerity budget will have a disproportionate effect on people in the North which has the lowest level of income of any part of the United Kingdom. It comes after £1.5 billion worth of austerity measures have already been implemented in the North by the Tories but also by local Assembly parties, including the DUP and Sinn Féin. By signing the so-called fantasy budget they have signalled that, despite the crisis in welfare reform, they are intent on moving forward with an austerity programme to which they agreed in the Stormont House Agreement which will result in up to 20,000 redundancies in the public sector, scandalously financed by Stormont borrowing £700 million from Westminster to lay off thousands of workers. Up to 500 schools are under threat under the watch of the North's Minister for Education, Mr. John O'Dowd, MLA, of Sinn Féin. This has not gone unresisted in Belfast, with communities rallying to defend Suffolk primary school in the west of the city, Avoniel and Dundonald schools in the east and Malvern school on the Shankill Road. They also want to push ahead with the selling-off of public assets. The Waterfront Hall and Belfast Harbour have been earmarked for privatisation and the DUP Minister, Ms Arlene Foster, MLA, recently stated Northern Ireland Water could be a potential revenue raiser if water charges were introduced.

This austerity agenda which the Tories alongside their colleagues in the DUP and Sinn Féin have been implementing has not gone unresisted. Thousands have taken to the streets against attempts to close Daisy Hill Hospital and the Downe Hospital. Most importantly, tens of thousands of workers - I was present - took strike action against the Stormont austerity budget in March, which assisted in forcing a crisis at Stormont over the implementation of welfare reforms. However, sadly, the majority of trade union leaders were not prepared to carry through in following up this strike action with further action against austerity. Instead some of them believe that some at Stormont are friends of the trade union movement. Parties that implement austerity measures are no friends of the trade union movement. Parties that base themselves on sectarian division and which during elections distribute sectarian material cannot be allies of the trade union movement. It is vital that a real strategy, including co-ordinated industrial action, be discussed in the trade union movement to challenge Stormont austerity.

The rioting that has happened in Belfast once again shows the urgency of building a political alternative to the politics of sectarianism. Sectarian politicians are incapable of solving the problems of sectarianism. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution. We need a new movement based on uniting working class people that can challenge sectarianism in all its forms and find solutions to contentious issues through dialogue between working class communities.

There is another side to developments in the North, which is the disenchantment of a growing layer of people, especially young people, with what passes for politics. They are fed up of being left behind when it comes to women and LGBTQ rights. A total of 20,000 people marched in Belfast to demand marriage equality and 68% in an opinion poll said they support marriage equality, yet politicians in Stormont, not just the DUP but others, including the SDLP and Alliance Party, have opposed this or abstained in the vote. One cannot be neutral on these questions of oppression. The same applies to the right of women to access abortion. Recently, we heard the horrific story of a women being prosecuted for providing her daughter with abortion pills. As in the South, all the establishment parties, from Sinn Féin to the DUP, are complicit in denying women the right to choose and it must be resisted.

People in Northern Ireland are increasingly disenfranchised from the politics of dinosaur politicians who deny basic rights and who refuse to stand up four square against oppression. They are fed up with politicians who make excuses for implementing austerity and they are sick of sectarianism which is a daily menace to the lives of ordinary people. That is why the desperate need, which the Socialist Party is committed to, is to build a working class and socialist alternative to the abysmal failure of sectarian politics and politicians in the North.

Deputy Charles Flanagan

It is just over a year to the day since I took up my current responsibilities as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, a year that has been defined by strenuous efforts to resolve long-standing issues, meet newer ones head on, and keep Northern Ireland on track towards a prosperous and reconciled future. Within hours of becoming Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, I had made my first calls to the Northern Ireland Executive party leaders and to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and within a few weeks I had made my first visit to Belfast. It was clear then, as it is now, how high a priority Northern Ireland is for this Government.

The message I received from the North’s leaders last July was clear. They were in the midst of a profound political crisis that they felt unable to resolve. They told me that the machine of devolved government was broken and they were not in a position to fix it alone. I was told by at least three parties that an intervention by the two Governments was urgently required. In September, the First Minister, Peter Robinson, publicly called for government involvement to resolve the crisis, and within a few weeks the Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, and I had convened the Stormont House talks.

The Good Friday Agreement provides the framework for the totality of relations in Northern Ireland, and across these islands. This Government is committed to ensuring the institutions established under the Agreement deliver the effective leadership and governance that a society emerging from conflict needs. We entered the Stormont House talks with this key objective in mind. I acknowledge the contribution to Northern matters of my colleague and immediate predecessor, Deputy Gilmore.

The purpose of last autumn’s talks was to create a framework across four work streams within which a range of previously intractable issues could be resolved, from the urgent need to provide human rights compliant mechanisms to deal with the past, to welfare and budgetary issues that had created a lengthy logjam in the North’s political institutions, to issues such as parading which continue to cause friction at community level in small but significant areas. It was also an opportunity to refocus our collective efforts on implementing outstanding commitments from previous agreements. This was indeed a substantial body of work.

Throughout the talks, the Government’s position was informed by the need to find practical, workable solutions, but also solutions built on the bedrock principles and ethos of the foundational Good Friday Agreement. During the course of these talks we insisted that the Government’s role as co-guarantor of the Good Friday and succeeding agreements be fully respected. After decades of conflict and a generation of peace, the people of Northern Ireland deserve much more than piecemeal compromises or halting progress. They deserve vision. The Stormont House Agreement articulates a positive vision for Northern Ireland’s future that fully respects the complexity of its past.

Indeed, the motion on Ballymurphy passed today by this House is a timely reminder that for thousands of families across this island, the past and its legacy have not been consigned to history. They live on in their daily struggle to find truth and justice. I am deeply conscious that these families are relying on us all, the Government, the North’s Executive parties and the British Government, to implement the agreement to give them the best chance of getting what has been owed them for too long.

To this end, the Government has done everything in its power to ensure the total implementation of the agreement. Real progress on the legislation needed in both jurisdictions to establish the framework for the past has been made. We have fulfilled many of our financial commitments under the agreement, including the allocation of €5 million to the International Fund for Ireland and the disbursement of more than €1.5 million since the start of this year from my Department’s reconciliation fund, and we have provided every support possible to Northern Ireland’s leaders as they have struggled to find a way forward on complex financial and budgetary challenges.

Despite the enormous efforts invested in the Stormont House process, the fundamental issue of stable and effective partnership government in Belfast seems no closer today than it was this time last year. For months, Northern Ireland has been mired in deadlock over the budgetary and financial commitments agreed at Stormont House. These are fundamentally important issues that get to the heart of governance and I understand how challenging it is to find the necessary compromises. In government there are always constraints. There are always difficult choices to be made within limited resources. A much more creative and constructive approach than has so far been evident is needed to overcome the current impasse on these issues.

Instead, what we have seen over recent months is serial brinkmanship. Last-minute negotiation in the spotlight of another feigned crisis is not leadership at all. It damages people’s faith in the institutions meant to serve them, undermines power-sharing politics and, as the Taoiseach stated, ultimately risks political collapse. We cannot afford, and cannot allow, that level of political neglect. What Northern Ireland needs is generous, courageous and effective partnership government in Belfast. Instead, the weeds of political opportunism are choking the green shoots of progress seeded by the Stormont House Agreement. No agreement in and of itself solves problems, it merely gives guidance and the tools to fix things. No piece of paper can force an individual to show the leadership or the strength of will needed to make a vision a reality.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves the fundamental question of why, having spent so long and invested so heavily in agreeing a common vision of how to address the North’s current challenges, the Northern Ireland Executive today continues to struggle to do its part in making this vision a reality. With the Stormont House Agreement we have a common map, we know the direction we must travel in, and yet the process remains hobbled.

Is the machine still broken? If so, how do we fix it? The Parliaments and Assemblies across these islands will rise shortly for the summer. Some have risen already. When we return, it will be to an impasse in Belfast on a series of issues that cannot be ignored. I hope that political leaders will use the weeks ahead to reflect carefully and to recognise how high the stakes are. The images on our television screens from north Belfast on Monday night remind us of the toxins that have yet to be drained from society and which will become even more poisonous if partnership politics fails to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.

These are serious challenges but they are not insurmountable. The support of the Irish Government in reaching workable solutions to the benefit of the people of this island as a whole remains unwavering. No one is in any doubt about the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland or that, as a place emerging from conflict, it will have distinct and particular needs, perhaps over generations to come. Similarly, no one can be in any doubt that there needs to be political leadership in Belfast articulating and activating, through the powerful mandate it has as a power-sharing Executive, a strategy and a vision for Northern Ireland. It has to be a collective vision, founded in the economic reality of the present but also determined to seize every opportunity to create a better future for the people of Northern Ireland.

I have visited Northern Ireland 20 times over the past year. I acknowledge the contribution, particularly in economic and trade development, of my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock.

The focus of my visits has gone beyond political negotiations. I have attended commemorative events and met community and business leaders as well as civil society locally. I know the desire for political progress, genuine reconciliation and economic renewal runs deep.

Next year, Ireland will mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the centrepiece of this decade of centenaries. Next year, we will also mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. One hundred years on from 1916, we are a democracy that has stood the test of time. We have experienced violence, grief and tragedy on our island. We have weathered economic storms that caused untold damage to our communities. We have survived each crisis and emerged ever stronger.

We have worked to build peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and will continue to do so in order that all parts of this island community can realise the full potential of peace and stability. At so many points in the past 20 years, Northern Ireland too has proven that politics can inspire when individuals and groups have gone beyond their comfort zone to shift society and politics onto a more positive, transformative track, and when former opponents have put differences aside to work together for the common good. We need politics in Belfast and across Northern Ireland to inspire again.

Deputy Brendan Smith

I am very glad that, earlier today, we had the opportunity to agree unanimously a motion by all Members of this House in regard to the Ballymurphy massacre. I recall meeting the families a year ago and speaking to them, as we spoke to them this morning. When the proposal was put forward by the Ballymurphy families in regard to an independent panel, I recall one comment made by Alex Attwood, MLA, who stated:

Today has other significance. It is that it is the families who seek truth who know best how to address the pain of the past.

I am very glad the motion refers to the need for truth. All of us who know the families of the victims of the terrible deeds of state forces and paramilitary organisations, who have not yet received any justice or seen people prosecuted for those murders, know that the least they deserve is the truth. That is the clear message that comes across at all times. I sincerely hope the British Government will be more responsive to the motion in regard to Ballymurphy than it has been in regard to the unanimous motions passed in this House in 2008 and 2011 in regard to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

I refer to the comments of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, about the thuggery and hooliganism we witnessed on the streets of north Belfast on Monday night. All of us would have thought we would not be in this Chamber once again referring to such acts of violence. I share the view of the Minister in his concluding remarks in which he stated very clearly that politics must work. Unfortunately, it is not working at present in Northern Ireland to the extent it should. Decent, law-abiding families in Belfast were once again the victims of this dysfunction. A very small minority can bring a city to its knees but we must be clear that those people can be totally unrepresentative of the community.

The backlog of unresolved political issues in the North is long and growing daily. I am struck by the straightforward message of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, in his comments regarding the future of the Executive and the Assembly. I presume I am not misreading his message when he paints a stark and chilling picture in regard to the future of those institutions. We sincerely hope the brinkmanship can be ended and progress made, and that the commitments that were entered into by political parties on 23 December last will be honoured. The blame game as to who has responsibility for this has been well rehearsed, but the political establishment is only in place because the people have continued to support it. If the leadership of the DUP and Sinn Féin do not work harder and more successfully to resolve the outstanding issues that are paralysing Northern public life, the people themselves will wonder whether it is worth even trying to make politics work. The message that must go out across all of the island is that politics must work for every community and that extremists must be marginalised.

From the Minister's comments, it is obvious the political paralysis that has gripped Northern Ireland threatens to pull down the institutions that were painfully put in place after much negotiation and hard work by many people. One would think, listening to Deputy Adams, that Governments here took no interest in bringing about a peaceful solution in Northern Ireland when that could not be further from the truth. It is vital that renewed momentum is put behind the Stormont House Agreement and genuine progress is made in getting the institutions to deliver for people on the ground. Deputy Micheál Martin quoted earlier the statistics in regard to child poverty and poverty among older citizens, and he outlined how disadvantaged some communities are in Northern Ireland. Surely politics and the work in the Northern Ireland Assembly and around the Executive table should not be about sharing out the spoils but about working towards a better society for all communities.

Peace has to be about more than just the absence of violence. As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish and British Governments have a special role in driving on that process, which must never be forgotten. We must also realise it is an international agreement and that the commitments made under the Good Friday Agreement must be honoured. The Northern Executive faces a serious financial challenge, which has been made even worse by the recent budget introduced by the Tories at Westminster. Unfortunately, deadlines with regard to progress that was expected to be achieved over recent months in regard to other elements of the Stormont House Agreement have not been met. None the less, I sincerely hope progress can be made on the other elements of the Stormont House Agreement. It is vital that the Government, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, the British Government and the Executive parties breathe fresh life into the Stormont House Agreement. It is the best chance of getting momentum into the overall peace process and ensuring that many of the outstanding aspects of the Good Friday Agreement and successive agreements prior to the Stormont House Agreement are met.

The Governments have not lived up to certain of their responsibilities in regard to implementing different aspects of the Good Friday Agreement. However, there are aspects of that Agreement that the Northern Executive has failed to achieve. Deputy Adams referred to the civic forum. My understanding is that this is solely a matter for the Northern Executive to establish. As I have previously asked both Deputy Gilmore, as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the current Minister, Deputy Flanagan, who in the name of God could be afraid of a civic forum? Why should there be opposition to a civic forum? Why can the Northern Executive parties not put in place a mechanism such as that? It is not a budgetary matter or a constitutional matter, and it should not be a political matter. That type of incremental implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and successive agreements should be achieved.

The Minister will have heard me on a number of occasions in the House raise the issue of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the absolute failure of the British Government to respond to the unanimous motions passed in this House. We know that was the single day of greatest carnage on our island during that very troubled period, when 33 innocent people were killed on the streets of Dublin and Monaghan and 300 people were injured. We know there was collusion between British state forces and the UVF in carrying out those bombings. We know, from the good work carried out by Anne Cadwallader, about the collusion of British state forces and paramilitary organisations, North and South - paramilitary organisations that masqueraded under the banner of republicanism and other paramilitary organisations associated with loyalism. Many innocent people were killed due to that collusion and due to the murderous campaigns of many paramilitary organisations as well.

We meet regularly with the families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Those people want the truth and it is the least they deserve. They have been grieving for more than 41 years and they have never got the truth in regard to who carried out the bombings. The Minister will also have heard me refer to the bombings in Belturbet and other parts of Monaghan, where there was also collusion with Northern state forces and where nobody has been brought to justice for those desperate deeds.

The legacy of the past, parades and flags are an important part of the different agreements since 1998, reinforced in the Stormont House Agreement of December 2014. It is essential that we make progress on them.

Both the BBC and RTE did good public service broadcasting in the past months in a number of very thorough documentaries on collusion. The full truth is needed in the interests of true reconciliation. The horror of the Troubles inflicted by the provisional IRA and other so-called republican groups, loyalist paramilitaries and agents of the British security forces must be fully exposed. It is essential that we get to the truth. I refer again to the very good work carried out by Anne Cadwallader who, in her book Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, documents the campaign of terror carried out by paramilitary organisations, in many instances with the collusion of British state forces, where so many innocent people were murdered. So many of those families have not seen justice administered at all.

I appeal to the Minister that, in the difficult circumstances surrounding the implementation of the Stormont House agreement, different aspects of that agreement be progressed as quickly as possible. We all know that parades and dealing with the legacy of the past are not simple issues on which to get a comprehensive solution but they are issues on which progress needs to be made.

I refer again to the potential of North-South economic co-operation. There is a need for further economic development in the Border region. We need further co-operation in the areas of health, education and developing trade. We need co-operation at political and central Government Department levels as well as through State agencies. There is huge potential through the working of the agreement to ensure a better island for all the people. Worthwhile employment can be created and is so badly needed throughout this island. Working together and maximising the potential of the agreements will be for the benefit of all the people.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

I join colleagues in welcoming the fact that we have passed an all-party motion which unequivocally and strongly states our support for the Ballymurphy families. A very clear demand has now been made on the British system to establish an appropriate investigation. We do not want to hear from Theresa Villiers, David Cameron or anybody else the reasons that, in their rather odd views, this does not serve the public interest. I welcome the fact that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, has been categoric in this matter. These atrocities must now be reviewed and investigated. The families are not looking for the moon. They are simply looking for an affirmation of the truth and that is not beyond any of us.

I welcome the current debate. It represents an opportunity to discuss matters facing institutions and, more crucially, citizens in the North. These matters also face all of us who share this island and nation. I use the term "nation" advisedly, as our nation is not bounded by an arbitrary line on a map or indeed by the whims of history. The North is not a foreign country, although sometimes one might feel that it is regarded almost as a faraway, exotic and separate place. I say that as a Dubliner; I imagine it is all the more acute for somebody from Belfast. Of course, the North is not far away, despite any partitionist mindsets. It is only a stone's throw away from us, as they say.

The binds of family, tradition, kinship and diversity link all of us Irish men and women one to the other. We share a common history and common identities - in the plural - across the island. I am talking not only of Nationalist and republican heritage and traditions, but also of the Orange tradition, which is an intrinsic part of the tapestry of Irish life. Deputy Dowds alluded to the inclusive and egalitarian Protestant tradition as the foundation on which modern Irish republicanism rests. He referred to it, I think, as a thin or slight tradition. It is, in fact, a very broad and rich tradition and is the one I very proudly serve to this day.

I wish to address a couple of matters which I believe are of high priority at present. The ongoing issues around welfare cuts as envisioned by the Tories and the cut of over €1.5 billion to the block grant have caused, and continue to cause, grave difficulties for the institutions and people in the North. I remind Deputies that the Tories enjoy no mandate in any part of Ireland. The decisions made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Osborne, the British Prime Minister or anybody else in Westminster have not been democratically endorsed or supported by anyone in Ireland, Unionist, Nationalist, loyalist or republican. That is a matter of recorded fact.

The Minister has called for more imagination and creativity. He also called for an end to brinksmanship. We would not approve of brinksmanship in circumstances that might threaten the institutions which we and others have worked so hard to establish and sustain. However, the Minister needs to understand that what is happening here is not brinksmanship or game playing. From the perspective of Sinn Féin, what is happening is a very simple assertion, made publicly and privately, that we will not be the enforcers of Tory cuts. It is as simple as that.

The Minister also needs to understand that the institutions are necessarily limited by the fact that they do not enjoy the full range of fiscal powers. This point is crucial, also for those in Scotland who argue for independence or, at least, enhanced devolution. To ask the Executive and Assembly to build the economy in a sustainable, all-Ireland, joined-up and progressive way while keeping back these fiscal powers is asking them to do the job with at least one hand tied behind their backs in political terms. This is an issue we have raised consistently with the British and Irish governments. It should not just be seen as Sinn Féin's battle or the Northern parties' battle. Dublin needs to take up this cause and champion it.

I was very taken with Deputy Gilmore's incisive commentary on the potential of this island, whose population is growing and which is brimful of talent, potential and optimism when we get things right. We need to mould that political opportunity in an all-island fashion, North to South and South to North. That can happen only if the Northern Executive and Assembly have the necessary policy levers to make it so. I cannot emphasise enough, from a political point of view and from my own personal point of view, how high that priority is.

It was thrown at us almost as a political charge or insult, but we take it as neither because it is true. It is a statement of fact to record the levels of poverty in places such as west Belfast where child poverty and pensioner poverty exists. It is also true to say that those same trends in poverty indices are alarmingly pronounced west of the River Bann. There is a regional division in terms of where one finds the most acute poverty.

It is a fair challenge to put to us what we will do about it. We will do everything we can within the powers that are assigned to us. At the forefront of our minds in the negotiation of the Stormont House Agreement was the protection of the most vulnerable and to ensure that current and future claimants of social benefits would be protected. That means children with disabilities and very large families. However, we also say to the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, in particular and to the Government, that in order to meet that challenge of poverty head on, the Executive and Assembly must have the power, discretion and tools to so do. It is time to give the power to the institutions. That would go a great way towards addressing the sense of disappointment with the performance of the Assembly, which has been expressed here.

Increasingly, people look to the bread and butter issues. One could ask why on earth they would not. They look to the opportunities for their children and job opportunities for themselves. In circumstances where the necessary powers are held back of course people will ask why the Assembly is not performing better. The Assembly and Executive must be given the authority to so do and then the ball will be fairly and squarely in the court of our elected representatives to do the business and make that a reality.

The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, asked why it is that we find ourselves at this pass. He asked why the vision had not become a reality. I suggest that the Dublin Government has some soul-searching to do in that regard. Talking about the issues is extremely important. Having debates such as this one is also extremely important but of far greater importance is action on foot of the debates. We are not spectators. This is not some distant exotic land. We are talking about the six north-eastern counties of our country. We are signed up, and the Government is signed up, to an internationally binding agreement that identifies the Government as a co-equal signatory and guarantor of everything contained therein. We must make good on that. The Government must also make good on it.

I apologise as I could speak at length but I am sure you will not let me, Acting Chairman.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Robert Troy)

No.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

I wish to make a final point. The scenes witnessed at the weekend were shocking, not least for some of my party colleagues whose election posters were placed on bonfires, or in the case of Michelle Gildernew, her effigy was burnt – not a pleasant or defensible action. There is a challenge for Unionism to examine that squarely. There is no doubt there is a challenge for all of us to deal with sectarianism. Let us record also that hundreds of loyal order institution parades went ahead with no trouble whatsoever. We have made progress and we can make more but we will only get there if we are fully engaged and if the Minister does not live in hope but lives in action.

Deputy Shane Ross

With the permission of the House I am sharing my time with Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Robert Troy)

Is that agreed? Agreed. The Deputies will have five minutes each.

Deputy Shane Ross

I was reflecting, listening to the debate and the contributions of Deputy Smith and Deputy McDonald, on the changed atmosphere of debates of this nature since I came into not this House but the other House. There was a time in the 1980s and 1990s, which both the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, will remember when Northern Ireland as a subject of debate was avoided like the plague by all governments because verbal explosions were liable to erupt and unreasonable emotional things were said which caused great difficulties to governments at the time. People could not be contained in their rather fiery outbursts about the issues of the day. That atmosphere has completely changed. Today, we have a fair degree of agreement and there is no longer the kind of imperative that Northern Ireland should be debated on a regular basis because thankfully, incidents of the sort to which we had become used are now a thing of the past.

I speak, I hope with no great hostility on the matter, but the great issues of the day on Northern Ireland included extradition, and at the time I called for the extradition of people who are now Members of this House. That is not something which, luckily, I feel impelled to do or would do again in the near future. Things have changed greatly and all governments should be congratulated on that. All parties involved should also be congratulated. While the atmosphere in which we debate today is divided in some areas, it is mature and sensible. That should be noted and welcomed. It has been brought about due to the great efforts and sacrifices that were made with great enthusiasm.

However, it is not as though the problem has been solved. We should note that sectarianism is alive and well in Northern Ireland. It may be a little bit below the surface and does not manifest itself in the way it did, but one only has to look at the results of recent elections there to see that the voting pattern is as sectarian as it ever was. While people vote on religious or tribal grounds in a mandatory way, thank God that at least they do not get up to the same activities as was previously the case. That should be a warning to us that the underlying trend still exists and it has not been eroded at all. One can predict the results of nearly all but one or two of the marginal seats in Westminster elections on the basis of a religious headcount. That is deeply regrettable.

I congratulate the Taoiseach on his speech and the Government on its performance. As the Taoiseach said, co-operation between the governments has improved immensely. Anglo-Irish relations have never been better. Co-operation exists on all fronts.

While there has been co-operation in many cross-Border activities, I deeply regret the decision of NAMA last week not to co-operate with the Northern Ireland investigation. I cannot understand why NAMA refused to co-operate at a time when there is such broad co-operation between the institutions, and that when investigations are being carried out that it would take a blatantly partitionist stance. Thank God the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, is present as NAMA is under the remit of his Department. He might consider calling in Mr. Daly and Mr. McDonagh and instructing them to give full co-operation to the NAMA investigation in Northern Ireland, and to travel there to answer questions about what happened. That would show there is solidarity and that we are not going to obstruct in any way an investigation just because it is taking place outside the jurisdiction.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

I welcome the commitment on the part of all parties in the House to the call for justice by the Ballymurphy families. It is good, at least, that we have come this far such that all parties can endorse the call. Having just come from a discussion about Shannon Airport, neutrality and the role Shannon played in the Iraq war, it strikes me as a terrible indictment of our political system that it takes 30 or 40 years for an acknowledgement that a state has done violence against ordinary citizens, that it takes decades for the victims of state violence to get acknowledgement that a wrong was done to them. While it is good, even if belated, that there is a recognition in this House, if not in the British Parliament, that justice is required, we must do much better.

In decades to come, there will, eventually, be an acknowledgement that the people of Falluja and other parts of Iraq have had terrible crimes committed against them by the United States, Britain and the other coalition allies, that appalling things were done, and that it helped hasten the rise of sectarian conflict and the disintegration of Syria. Eventually, in decades to come, we will admit all of this and the families who were devastated by the violence may receive some acknowledgement, or they may not. It should not take so long. Ordinary people who resist unjust actions by a state are often vilified and demonised for doing so, and are called terrorists and extremists. Much later, it turns out that it was the state, those who were supposed to be the guardians of the people, who were responsible for the runs and injustices. Nonetheless, this is progress, if not from the British side.

Whatever debates and political battles we have to have, we all very much welcome the fact that the gun has been taken out of Northern Ireland politics and the vitriol and violence that characterised the political conflicts around the North have been somewhat diminished. This happened largely because the people of the North had had enough. I give far more credit to the ordinary people, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, than to any political force for bringing about the ceasefire and the current climate and atmosphere in which we can begin to talk and move towards a resolution of sectarian conflict. I fundamentally disagree with what seems to be the commitment on the part of parties on both sides of the House to the Stormont House Agreement. It is not a good agreement and it will not help matters but has the potential to inflame sectarian conflict.

As Deputy Shane Ross said, and as is clearly the case, despite the progress we have made, sectarianism still exists in the North. Given that the political arrangements in the Northern Ireland Assembly are based on sectarian quotas and on the continued existence of tribal, community-based parties, battles that should be over economic injustices and other issues are shoved through the prism of sectarian and communal conflict and express themselves in that way, always creating the potential for a flaring up of communal violence.

Against this background, the Stormont House Agreement is an austerity agreement. How can agreeing to 20,000 job losses in the public sector, the sale of State assets and the imposition of social welfare cuts do anything other than add fuel to the flames of the continuing festering sectarianism in the North? It cannot do it. If we impose further economic hardship on Roman Catholic and Protestant people in the North, against a background of continuing and bubbling sectarianism, it will be a potential recipe for sectarian violence to flare up again. If we want peace in the North, the Stormont House Agreement, in so far as it is an austerity agreement, is not part of the solution but may be a significant part of the problem.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (Deputy Charles Flanagan)

I very much welcome today's debate on Northern Ireland. I acknowledge the contributions of Members across the House, which have captured not only the challenges but the opportunities that Northern Ireland faces. I agree with Deputies Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald that we need to have more frequent debates in the House and I disagree with Deputy Shane Ross in that regard. I would like us to have at least one plenary debate on Northern Ireland every session and would be more than happy to consult with Opposition spokespersons and the Chief Whip on it. One of the Oireachtas committees is devoted to dealing with matters pertaining to Northern Ireland and I acknowledge the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and its Chairman. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, which I regularly attend, also has a mandate in that regard.

Based on the debate, while we may differ at times in our analysis and prescriptions, we hold a common conviction that leadership is required to ensure the full realisation of peace, prosperity and political stability which was the fundamental commitment and promise of the Good Friday Agreement 17 years ago, that the Government is ambitious in its a vision for Northern Ireland and North-South relations. We spoke about close ties, economic co-operation and shared services, which will result in a dividend for all the people on this island. In recent times, we have already tapped into this potential in terms of joint trade missions, shared health services, joint applications for EU funding, joined up policies in agriculture, animal health and other areas, tourism promotion, joint bids for top-class world sporting events and much more. We will continue to work to enhance further co-operation across a range of issues.

I very much agree with the earlier comments by my predecessor, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, that we should consider practical steps we can take to build further over a range of issues to develop an all-island economy. We want to support and be a good neighbour to a vibrant and forward-looking Northern Ireland with stable, effective partnership Government and a society with tolerance and respect for human rights at its very core. We want to ensure the principles and ethos of the Good Friday Agreement remain the lifeblood of the ongoing process of peace and reconciliation on this island. These principles must shape political action, not just political rhetoric.

The challenges for Northern Ireland are numerous and significant and there is no panacea. However, I guarantee that any solutions must have in common two essential qualities, namely, generosity of purpose and honest engagement. Whether the task at hand is to resolve a long-standing parading dispute or identity issues more generally or to find a workable resolution to the deadlock around welfare, there must be a genuine desire to find agreement, otherwise it is merely a sterile game of blame avoidance and political calculation.

I refer to a comment by Deputy Mary Lou McDonald and others on the current budgetary and welfare impasse. While I recognise that not all fiscal powers are held by the Northern Ireland Assembly, there are degrees of responsibility which all parties in the North must accept.

Despite what Deputy Adams said, unemployment in Northern Ireland rose over the summer, a matter of concern. As Deputy Martin said, a point which even Deputy McDonald acknowledged, 46% of children in west Belfast live in poverty. I welcome Deputy McDonald’s statement that Sinn Féin will continue to do all it can to help reach agreement on the outstanding budgetary and financial issues. I look forward to listening to positive proposals on how the Northern Ireland economy might grow and engaging with Sinn Féin in this regard.

Deputies Ross, Clare Daly and Wallace raised the current issues pertaining to the sale of a portfolio of loans in Northern Ireland by the National Asset Management Agency. These serious allegations have been considered by the Committee of Public Accounts, and the Northern Ireland Assembly finance committee is holding hearings on these matters. The allegations are subject to a criminal investigation in Northern Ireland. The UK’s National Crime Agency announced that, at the request of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, it will investigate the sale of Northern Ireland loans owned by NAMA. I hope these hearings and investigations provide clarity on the serious issues raised. If Deputies Wallace, Clare Daly or Ross or anybody else has evidence, I urge them to pass on that information to the appropriate authorities. I assure Deputy Ross that An Garda Síochána will co-operate, as it does over a range of matters, with the appropriate UK authorities on this issue if required to do so.

Dialogue remains essential in finding solutions. Turning up for dialogue is important but it is not enough. Genuine engagement and dialogue in good faith is required. Talks, whether at community or political level, have little value if they are used as an opportunity not to listen but simply to restate long-standing positions. More honest conversation and less grandstanding will be necessary ingredients to any viable solution to Northern Ireland's most pressing problems. We must deny the cynics, the opportunists and those who exploit crises to meet their own socially destructive ends. As Deputy Smith said, politics must work and must be seen to work. Political and community leaders need to recognise the impact their engagement, or lack of engagement, has on the ground. Time and again failure of leadership has created vacuums that have been filled by those at the very extremes who have no interest in stability.

Deputy Martin referred to recent polling in Northern Ireland which demonstrated the degree of disengagement among the electorate. It would be a tragedy if the continuing impasse over welfare and budgetary matters had the collateral effect of squandering a significant opportunity to advance progress on the deeply sensitive issue of dealing with the past. I implore all those committed to valuing the promise of the Good Friday Agreement to provide leadership to the people of Northern Ireland which they so desperately yearn and clearly deserve. The Irish Government will continue to support and encourage those parties who by their actions are genuinely committed to partnership politics on this island.