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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

Good Friday Agreement implementation

Summary

Deputy McDonald argued the Government was falling short of its co-guarantor role and urged full implementation of the Agreement, especially amid Brexit. The Tánaiste insisted the Government remains fully committed and is working to protect the Agreement’s institutions.

The programme for Government commits that the Government will actively fulfil its mandate as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. Today marks the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement has delivered peace and fundamentally changed relationships across Ireland and the relationship with Britain. It promised power sharing, equality and the potential for constitutional change, and it was endorsed by the vast majority of people. Sinn Féin supports the provisions of the agreements. We meet our obligations under the agreements. Unfortunately, there are those who continue to oppose the agreement, but they cannot be allowed to undermine the hopes of all who share this island. The DUP, as we know, never signed up to the Good Friday Agreement and consistently opposes equality. The British Government is imposing Brexit and is refusing to honour its obligations under the agreements. The Good Friday Agreement and its institutions are being actively undermined by the actions of an irresponsible British Government and a reckless DUP.

The agreement is an international one between two sovereign governments. What steps is the Government taking to ensure that the legal obligations of the British Government will be honoured and the hopes of a generation realised? Will the Government convene the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to map a way forward consistent with the Good Friday Agreement?

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Simon Coveney The Tánaiste Fine Gael

The Government is absolutely committed to the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, both in word and in spirit. I speak to my counterpart in the British Government on a regular basis - in fact, to a number of my counterparts in the British Government - to that effect. I can assure people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland that the Good Friday Agreement is a major priority for the Government, particularly in the context of the threats and the strains that come with the Brexit negotiations. We have at all times acted to ensure nothing will happen linked with Brexit that will fundamentally undermine how the Good Friday Agreement operates and what it is meant to deliver by way of a stable peace process into the future. All of us in this House have an obligation to try to work to ensure we can re-establish core elements of the Good Friday Agreement in the coming weeks and months. I look forward to working with the Deputy in that regard.

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