Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. There are a lot of important aspects to this that merit serious engagement. I reiterate my colleague’s call on the Government to seriously engage with this. I do not believe its response was a serious engagement. If we are serious about a united Ireland, it will take a massive amount of work on inclusion and engagement and that work has to start now. While the Government has set out the different initiatives it has taken, it is clearly not substantive in engaging all communities and offering a pathway forward. For us in the Social Democrats, we believe that all communities must be engaged. Our vision for how we engage them is a vision of a united Ireland that is a social democratic Ireland, a new republic, where we are united on this island in ending child poverty, ending homelessness and ensuring everyone can have an affordable life, where young people can afford to buy or rent an affordable home, where disadvantaged communities across this island can have safe spaces, where children can play in decent playgrounds and sports facilities and where, whether they are unionists or nationalists, in the South or the North, everyone can live a life with dignity. What we believe in is a social democratic republicanism that wants to build a social democratic Ireland that radically reduces inequalities across this island, where everyone can live a decent life. We want to see a vision for a united Ireland that is a welcoming Ireland, inclusive of all communities - new Irish, immigrants, old Irish, unionist and nationalist. Teastaíonn ó na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta Éire aontaithe a fheiceáil, is í sin, Éire agus Poblacht nua ina bhfuilimid aontaithe ar an oileán seo chun deireadh a chur le bochtaineacht leanaí agus easpa dídine agus chun a chinntiú gur féidir le gach duine saol inacmhainne a chaitheamh. We all believe that the work and process towards a united Ireland must be founded on the values that we want to see in the new island, namely, respect for everyone, inclusion of all communities, equality and human rights and, fundamentally, the belief in the decency and dignity of all. To do that will require changing the North and South in terms of how our economies and societies are structured. The scale of poverty in the North and South, including child poverty, is unacceptable. No one wants to see that. Building towards and working for a united Ireland has to involve how we solve these fundamental problems that are rupturing the social contract, North and South, and leading to further division and hate and a decline in social cohesion. We believe in building a united Ireland and putting these issues to the core of that can create a fair united Ireland for all of us where all communities are included.

Sentiment score: 0.23