Sinéad Gibney backs United Ireland bill, demands real dialogue

Go raibh maith agat lás Ceann Comhairle and I would like to start by thanking Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I commend the motion and I'm happy to say that the Social Democrats will be very happy to support it and we are happy to support it because we support a United Ireland and we support the constitutional change that is needed to facilitate bringing about that United Ireland and what this motion, what this bill does is provides for the work and the dialogue that needs to happen for that constitutional change and before I speak to the bill itself I just want to pick up on the comments raised by both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste in their contributions around the timeline because that for me is really problematic. I mean you went into quite a lot of detail Taoiseach about why an 18 months timeline isn't appropriate for the work that's set out but this is just another example for me that you're not willing to work with us. If 18 months isn't appropriate it can be dealt with in committee, it can be extended further. It's about dialogue because that's what this does do and that's what we're not getting from you. I mean in Fine Gael we saw recently the publication of or the announcement of a blueprint. That's not what this is about. This is a discussion that has to come from all directions and it is coming from all directions. It's already happening so the fact that it isn't happening in the appropriate way in this chamber is an issue and this is what this legislation puts forward and as far as I'm concerned it does so in a way that is completely in keeping with the Good Friday Agreement and I think very respectful of some of the really important features that we need to consider within this debate and those are some of the things that I'd like to speak to now. And the first one is that language is important in this and this is something that I've learned over the course of my life. I've lived in the north, I've worked in a formal structure, part of the Good Friday Agreement, set up the Joint Commission of the Human Rights Commissions and I was chair of that along with my counterpart from Belfast. So I've had that understanding of how the north is how some people like to be referred to but when you're in certain other settings you have to refer to Northern Ireland and you have to respect the different ways in which people assert their own identity in this discussion. So for me language is hugely important and that is something that has to be respected and that's something that comes through absolutely crystal clear for me in this piece of legislation. So it's something that I think we have to acknowledge. Another thing that I think I have noticed within the discussions that we've had is that there is a huge imbalance on both sides of the border between understanding of these issues and an appetite to discuss them. I have peers, friends of mine who I've grown up alongside who've barely been up to to Northern Ireland at all, who've barely you know who've maybe gone to see the Titanic Museum. Unless people have friends or contacts or they have reasons to go to the north there are many many people here in our jurisdiction who do not have the understanding of the cultural differences that we have either side of the border, the history and the issues and that is something we need to address. That is something that you as a government and we as a state needs to address. We need to foster that dialogue we need to have these conversations at dinner tables around this country and we need to do it here in this chamber as well. Because self-determination is a core principle of international law and it's one that we must observe and practice on our own island. We talk about it in many other contexts in the debates in this chamber and that's ultimately what this constitutional discussion is about. It's about self-determination and it's about saying that rooted in the Good Friday Agreement is the opportunity and the potential for these constitutional discussions for dialogue to happen and ultimately for us to go to the ballot at a certain point and vote about a united Ireland on a border poll and that's what we're working towards. So the dialogue around it, the work around it needs to be done and while I recognize the good work of the Shared Ireland and the work that is done by this government I do not think it is yet facilitating the kind of dialogue and the kind of debate and the kind of very clear prescient work that is described in this legislation. And as Social Democrats what we see in this whole debate about constitutional change is the opportunity and in a lot of the discussions that I've been a part of recently Deputy McLaughlin mentioned the SDLP conference I attended that recently and spoke at it and there is so much excitement around that opportunity that this is a democratic opportunity for us to look at how we govern this country and see about the improvements that we can make through the opportunities that we're going to get through this constitutional dialogue. And really if we want people to get behind this discussion to be a part of the dialogue we have to translate it into what it's going to mean for their lives. Where we do have north-south cooperation it is always of benefit to the communities that it serves. We see informal ways in which our medical professions both sides of the border work together to provide critical care when people need it. We need to formalize more and more of that and we also need to help people understand that actually we will be so much better off if we can have these conversations as an island. And as I say at the outset we need to do this from the bottom up. We need to make sure that we're not just coming at the population with a blueprint but instead facilitating that dialogue from the outset. Which is why the Green Paper facilitates that dialogue here, the Citizens Assembly and the very heavy emphasis on consultation within this is also a huge part of it. And one of the groups obviously that comes up a lot within those recent discussions is the unionist community in Northern Ireland. And again I think that's done in a respectful way in this legislation but it is absolutely central to the conversations that we're going to have. What does a united Ireland look like? What does constitutional discussion look like for people within the unionist community? And all of that in my mind is facilitated by this legislation which is why we will be supporting it.