Martin: Government ‘complacent’ about peace process

The Government has been accused of neglect and complacency over the peace process and of “dramatically” reducing its level of engagement with Northern affairs.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin also launched a scathing attack on the governing parties in the North — Sinn Féin and the DUP — whom he said put party interests ahead of the common good.

Mr Martin, whose party was heavily involved in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement, said Taoiseach Enda Kenny has made “no attempt” to move the process onto the next stage.

“Too many people think the work is over,” he said, but taking political achievements for granted could prove a “mistake of historic proportions”.

Mr Martin made the comments at an annual event commemorating Irish revolutionary leader Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown Cemetery in Co Kildare.

“Given the effort that went into this process over a very long time by very many people, this sort of disengagement and complacency by our own Government is unacceptable,” said Mr Martin, claiming Mr Kenny has had the “bare minimum of meetings concerning the North and has outlined not a single new item for his agenda”.

He said: “There has been no attempt to move the process to the next stage. There has been no push for initiatives to undertake vital anti-sectarian work.

“There has been no discussion of how the long-term roots of division and underdevelopment are to be tackled.”

Mr Martin then turned his critical focus to the main parties in the North, where he said the news is “dominated by the old parades politics”.

He said it was depressing that things are getting worse in the North across a range of indices, including child poverty.

“West Belfast currently has a staggering 46.2% of children living in poverty,” he said, and Fianna Fáil “as a republican party” must care about these issues.

He was particularly scathing of Sinn Féin, which he said was “playing politics, and putting their party interest first is a consistent part of their ideology — something we see every day in the Dáil.”

He said they were refusing to acknowledge the founding logic of the peace process — that the campaign of violence and division was wrong.

“They glorify the Provisionals’ (IRA) campaign, including some of the worst atrocities. They are trying to have it both ways of demanding to be treated just like any party but refusing to be open about their past or apologise for it,” he said.

“What is actively dangerous about this is what it says to others that might be foolish enough to want to keep their tradition going.

“How can they stand against the Real IRA and other groups if they keep asserting the legitimacy of the Provisionals’ campaign? How can they condemn those who present themselves as inheritors of the mantle of revolutionary republicanism if they honour a group which was rejected time and again by the Irish people?”

Mr Martin added: “The idea that seems to have seeped into Government Buildings, that ‘the North’s sorted’, is extremely shortsighted.

“The unity of people on this island in one State remains the aspiration of the majority of the Irish people and it is the duty of our Government to work for it with real commitment.”