A New Ireland, A Time of Opportunity – Senator Conor Murphy

Sinn Féin leader in the Seanad, Senator Conor Murphy, has said that the Irish government must embrace this time of pivotal change and opportunity with open arms, hearts and minds, and take a more proactive role in the planning and preparation for constitutional change.

Speaking today at the Institute of International and European Affairs, Senator Murphy said that the Irish Government is not only best placed, but is duty bound given its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement to lead this planning and preparation phase which we are now entering.  He called for a Citizens’ Assembly to be established to encourage greater participation by populations across the island in deciding their future, adding that respect and cooperation must be the cornerstone on which a new Ireland is built.

Senator Murphy’s speech in full:

‘A New Ireland – A Time of Opportunity’

For the people of Ireland, in the lasty thirty years, two years stand out more than most – 1998 and 2016.

They do so for very different reasons – 1998 was the year the people of Ireland voted to endorse the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and 2016 was the year the people of the North of Ireland voted to remain inside the EU and reject Brexit – yet the British government ignored the democratic will of the people of the North and forcibly removed the North of Ireland from the EU, in January 2020.

In both referenda large numbers of the unionist and Protestant population voted in favour of the GFA and against Brexit.

This demonstrated that they are interested in being part of a wider set of relationships across Ireland and the EU.

The GFA promised and delivered unprecedented and positive change within Ireland, between Ireland and Britain and between Ireland and the EU.

Brexit promised and delivered chaos in Britain and risked damaging the peace process here.

The combined pressure of the United States administration and the EU ensured that the damage to the peace process and to the economies of Ireland was contained, the message eventually getting through to the British government that Ireland was a special case and should not be press-ganged into a hard-Brexit regime.

At this time the EU was at its very best as it protected Ireland’s national interests against the national interests of the British government.

And the EU has made it clear that in the event of the people of Ireland voting Yes to a new united Ireland in referenda, North and South as catered for by the GFA, Ireland will automatically join the EU.

In their own way both the GFA and the Brexit negotiations grappled with a great wrong imposed on the people of Ireland, the partition of our country.

Inherent in both is the reality of the aggressive denial by the British government of the rights of the people of Ireland to decide their own future, without interference by the British government.

Partition in 1921 was the British government’s reaction to the democratic will of the vast majority of the people of Ireland, who in the general election of 1919, voted for Irish independence by voting for Sinn Féin.

The British government-imposed partition and militarily suppressed the democratic will of the people of Ireland.

Partition has disrupted the natural circuits of commerce in Ireland.

Discouraging investment.

Creating inefficiencies.

And hindering trade.

An irony given that the British Government gerrymandered the new Northern state to protect the privilege of the unionist ruling class, the north east of Ireland is now the island’s weakest region economically.  It has slipped from being the most dynamic and industrial part of Ireland just before partition to trailing the South on every measure of economic success and quality of life. 

Hardly surprising given that it was placed into enforced isolation from the rest of the island as a matter of policy for more than 70 years.  Labour productivity in the South of Ireland today is more than 2.5 times the North’s; Gross National Income is 57% higher in the south than GDP in the north; wages are 36% higher here.  26.3% of Government expenditure goes to health in the south compared to 17.3% in the north;  children born in the south today will live 2 years longer than children born in the north;  across all age groups in education enrolment rates are higher in the south than the north; 94% of 15-19 year olds are in education in the south compared to only 71% in the north; 7 times more people proportionally have been on waiting lists for more than 18 months in the north compared to the south.

I could go on!

And yet the north has so much potential that is being under-exploited within the current constitutional framework, assets that if properly invested in could bring so much to the balance sheet of a new Ireland and make the north once again a powerhouse of economic innovation.  Belfast has the island’s only large-scale, deep-water port, heavy manufacturing capacity (critical for our shared offshore renewable energy targets), as well as three of the other main ports on the island.

Mid Ulster has a significant, indigenous, manufacturing sector with many of its products being global leaders. The creative arts industry has continued to build on the success of Game of Thrones with significant investment in new studios as well as a groundbreaking training and education facility under the management of Ulster University. The Fintech and cyber security sectors are achieving global recognition.

We have two top class universities, Queens and Ulster, two excellent Teacher Training Colleges, St Marys and Stranmillis, thousands of world class researchers, a young hard-working population, six industry-orientated further education colleges and a thriving tourism sector.  The region’s cultural heritage is central to Irish identity, the Irish language is thriving; it is the burial place of St Patrick, the seat of the major Christian churches in Ireland, the birthplace of some of Ireland’s greatest poets, performers and sports people and, of course, the current holders of the All-Ireland Sam Maguire Cup – again the list goes on!

The Good Friday Agreement was the first agreement since partition in 1921 in which the British government addressed the causes of conflict in Ireland. 

It did so with the Irish government and all the parties to the conflict with the exception of the DUP.

The Agreement fundamentally altered the British government’s illegal claim on a part of Ireland.

The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was repealed, coupled with an explicit and unprecedented commitment by the British government to recognise the legitimacy of the outcome of any future referendum on the north’s place in the UK.

The Agreement’s political framework was set in an all-Ireland context with a North-South Ministerial Council, an Executive and Assembly and a British Irish Council.

These institutions allow politicians to be directly involved in the affairs of the people of Ireland daily.

Over the years civic and business leaders argued that regardless of how Ireland was governed, it made sense for such a small island to operate as a single economic unit.

A very good example of the practical outworking of the GFA, through Intertrade Ireland, is the increase in all-Ireland trade which is now valued at £12.4 billion annually up from less than £2 billion in 1998.

However, with the North tied to Britain’s economic model and its problems, Brexit included, as I’ve shown, economic performance in the south now far surpasses that north of the border.

Unfortunately, expectations that a new government in Britain, led by Labour, would end the economic mismanagement and the austerity policies of the Tories have not been realised and the funding of public services continue to face critical pressure.

Thankfully the protocol, which had the backing of the Irish government and the EU, protects the all-Ireland economy with respect to manufactured goods and agri-food by keeping the whole of Ireland in the EU market for goods.

Cross-border trade is surging now that there is a degree of certainty on our trading arrangements.

This is the beneficial outworking of the peace and political processes in parallel with the all-Ireland institutions of the GFA.

Cross-border tourism has also increased significantly.

Individual companies, sectoral clusters and supply chains increasingly operate on an all-Ireland basis.

As Economy Minister I ensured that cross-border co-operation was promoted between our economic development agencies, North and South. I led the first ever joint Trade Mission involving the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Invest NI to Singapore last autumn.

And I am confident that the current Economy Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, will continue to expand that cooperation particularly to maximise the export and inward investment opportunities created by dual market access and remove the barriers to cross-border studying and working.

It is time to build on this success.

This is recognised by the Irish government too and it was appropriate that one of my first meetings as Economy Minister in the North’s Executive was to meet my, then, counterpart in the south, Simon Coveney, in the Intertrade Ireland offices in Newry.

However, we must go further.

Because while it is the case that we have the ‘best of both worlds’ with respect to trade in manufactured goods and agri-food products, the North has lost many of the benefits of full EU membership, notably access to the single market for tradeable services (an important sector in the north), access to EU workers and EU funding and free movement of tourists; and there are uncertainties with respect to mutual recognition of qualifications.

Objectively, the ‘best of both worlds’ would be a reunified all-Ireland economy which combines the best of the South and the best of the North.

That is where the conversation is going on the ground. Opinion polling confirms that support for unity has grown significantly in the past three years with a majority of voters under 45 opting for a united Ireland. But both governments need to catch up with this reality!

Our regional government in the North working in conjunction with the Irish government can minimise some of the difficulties created by partition, but that comes at a substantial cost.  The Irish and British governments who have the sovereignty to take the necessary decisions must recognise that partition is the root problem and prepare the ground to allow the people of Ireland to decide our future.  On such a small island partition was always an indefensible construct but especially now in the 21st century.

It is only through constitutional change that we can free the North from its ties to Britain’s failing economy, gain full control over our economic destiny and realise the full potential of the all-Ireland economy and of the integration of government and the administration of public services.

The potential of the all-Ireland economy, among many other opportunities associated with constitutional change, was highlighted in a report in July 2024 by the Oireachtas Good Friday Agreement Committee.

This comprehensive report, which is an all-party report, in considering  the potential offered by a new united Ireland concluded that the planning and preparation for a scenario of change needed to begin as soon as possible, not least to ensure that the voters who would ultimately decide the future constitutional shape of Ireland were well informed and that the  mistakes of the Brexit referendum were not repeated.

The Irish government as the sovereign government for three quarters of the island is not just best placed but is duty bound given its responsibilities under the GFA to lead this planning and preparation phase which we are now entering.

It is the obvious next step for the Irish government following on from their work through the Shared Island initiative which has made involvement in the debate by those who identify as culturally unionist much easier.

The debate now needs to be accelerated through a Citizens Assembly, or other forums, which should be established by the government to encourage greater participation by populations across the island in deciding their future.

There are members of the unionist and Protestant community already involved in the constitutional debate and that is of course very welcome.

And what is quite clear is that there are many issues for republicans, nationalists and unionists to talk about.

The fears of the unionist community need to be addressed in a meaningful way.

We need to look at what they mean when they say they are British and be willing to explore that and be open to new ideas.

Respect and cooperation must be the cornerstone on which a new Ireland is built.

And for unionists this means a new Ireland must be shared and integrated and that they play a key role in building it.

A place where unionists have equal ownership, where there will be respect for their cultural identity, where it has been demonstrated to them that they are welcome, needed and belong.

This is a time of great change and great opportunity for the people of Ireland.

Let us embrace it with open arms, hearts and minds.