Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 17 May 2022
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Transcript
Acting Leader, you look extremely well there in the new suit, having been elevated today, so congratulations on that. Acting Leader, the Cahalbroa barracks is 100 years old today and there is a parade in the barracks to celebrate that. And it is really rather distressing to me that the bourgeois green party of the middle class want to see Cahalbroa barracks bulldozed to the ground for property for the well-heeled in South County Dublin. Cahalbroa barracks is a vital part of the Dublin infrastructure and the defence forces. I wish them well and I hope they'll be there for another 100 years. The Greens or the barracks? The barracks, of course. Now, Acting Leader, I don't often agree with my colleague, Senator O'Donnell, but Sinn Fein had a tremendous win in the Northern election and in my lifetime we now see a situation where a nationalist group should be in control in the north of Ireland now. But because of the Good Friday Agreement, which is respected by all, there is a shared responsibility and it is extremely distressing, not just for me, but for people who are contacting me from both the nationalist and the unionist side of Northern Ireland, who are deeply upset at the actions of, should I say, the undemocratic actions of the DUP, who have turned out now at this stage to be the tail that wags the dog, not just in Northern Ireland, but right across the UK. It simply is not good enough that a minority group would be able to stifle democracy in Northern Ireland. There are people waiting on key payments and various other things that have to come out and it's simply not good enough. And I can't disagree with one word my colleague said today, including the amnesties. I don't agree with any of it. Bottom line on it is we have a Prime Minister in the UK who's playing fast and loose with not just democracy, but with the damage that could be done to the Good Friday Agreement. And I'm calling on our Minister to immediately make contact with the Foreign Office in the UK and tell them we're not up for it. Thank you. Thank you.