Taoiseach told by Mayo TD why many supporters are leaving his party
A Mayo TD has expressed her frustration that An Taoiseach and his partners in government 'have not acknowledged their constitutional obligation to achieving a united Ireland'.
Sinn Féin Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh hit out: "It really concerns me and many of the Taoiseach's grassroots and lifelong supporters that nowhere in the 1,900 words of the programme for government section on the shared island unit does it mention a united Ireland.
"That is why many supporters of the Taoiseach's party are leaving and joining Sinn Féin. I can only speak from my experience in Mayo on that.
"This concerns me as the Taoiseach and his partners in the government have not acknowledged their constitutional obligation to achieve a united Ireland.
"There is no reference to the explicit commitment in the Good Friday Agreement for the referendum on Irish unity. I have to ask the Taoiseach why that is so.
"Despite this, the shared island unit is tasked with a wide range of responsibilities, although I will not name them now.
"The shared island unit must be capable of delivering progress in a wide range of areas that needs to be reflective of how it is staffed and resourced.
"Expectation of a shared island unit are that it would establish a citizens' assembly, publish a White Paper on Irish unity and facilitate a Oireachtas joint committee to encourage structured dialogue North, South, east and west, which would also involve our diaspora and allow us to discuss how we share and shape this island.
"The hour has come for the Taoiseach to show me and people like me from all around the country that a shared island unit is a genuine attempt to unify our island.
"The folly of partition is demonstrated over and over again, more recently with Brexit and Covid-19, and dismantling it, while always important, is now urgent.
"Before he gives me a lecture about Sinn Féin having disregard for the Protestant, unionist or loyalist population, I tell the Taoiseach that I am a mother from the far west of Ireland.
"I was born in London and I lived a very good part of my life in England.
"I want the same opportunities for my sons as do mothers in east Belfast. I want to see a good a respectful relationship between both our islands that embraces the Irish living in Britain and the British living in Ireland."
In response, An Taoiseach Micheàl Martin said he has worked hard behind the scenes and as a Minister to develop collegiate arrangements with people of all political persuasions in the North.
"I do not need lectures from Deputy Conway-Walsh or from Sinn Féin.
"Working with others, Fianna Fáil was essential to the Good Friday Agreement. Fianna Fáil enabled the Deputy Conway-Walsh's party to give up the gun. Sinn Féin endorsed violence as the way to unify Ireland and did more damage to Irish unity than anybody else.
"Sinn Féin continues to endorse that narrative of violence, not understanding that every time it does so it makes more difficult than ever to get a united Ireland or to get consent."