North's youth demand sustainable peace, says Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern: 'We all have an ongoing responsibility to continue to ensure that this generation's pathway in life is a perpetually peaceful one.'
The North's youth demand sustainable peace, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will tell British MPs on Monday.
Mr Ahern will address Members of Parliament at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster as he becomes the first invited guest called upon to assess the effectiveness of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).
Speaking at the Committee, Mr Ahern will say that the 25th anniversary of the deal will mark an important point of reflection for what has been achieved and is still to be achieved in the North.
One of the architects of the deal, Mr Ahern's testimony comes as the EU and UK continue talks aimed at resolving the stand-off on the Northern Protocol.
Mr Ahern will tell the British MPs that generations who are now growing up in an environment of "an imperfect but perpetual peace" are the "real treasures that this agreement can point to".
"We should hold this generation up as our greatest triumph. Far from criticising them as a generation who “do not remember” and therefore will “never understand” the Troubles, we should celebrate them as our singular success. For only if we continue to be successful as civic leaders in continuing on the commitment in the BGFA can we ensure that they do not have to witness the horrific acts of violence that scar both our pasts. We all have an ongoing responsibility to continue to ensure that this generation's pathway in life is a perpetually peaceful one."
The former Taoiseach will point to "a growing prosperity and improved quality of life as a direct result" of the deal, agreed in early 1998.
On the economic front, he will tell the committee that the "peace dividend" has been witnessed by Irish businesses north and south for the last two and a half decades in substantial ways, and that "the growing commercial, cultural, and social ties across the island of Ireland continue to offer the promise of an all-island economy which is not only politically stable but economically strategic".
Mr Ahern will say that the Covid-19 pandemic made borders "redundant" but will say that the potential of the agreement has not been reached.
"Whilst that peace dividend is significant, there remains further opportunities of mutual benefit which Northern Irish and the Irish business community will continue to pursue in the coming decades. Peace on the island underpinned by the BGFA has been central to prosperity and the success of many businesses. Business must therefore play a central role in the further development of an all-island economy which has the evolving principles of the BGFA at its core.
"Looking back should not prevent us from looking forward to the promise that a perpetual peace can deliver even more for our island and all its children.
"Perhaps I can borrow a phrase from my party’s election campaign slogan in 2002, 'A lot done, more to do'. We can assess the successes to date and acknowledge what did not work in the manner we might have hoped, but most of all we can use this opportunity to consider this 25-year marking as the start to a new dawn, a dawn which rather than simply appreciates peace, that this is a generation dedicated to demanding a perpetual peace from all of us as civic leaders”.
