Republican News · Thursday 28 March 2002

Ó Caoláin welcomes Dáil access for Northern MPs

Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Party Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin at Leinster House on 21 March, when they met Brian Lenihan TD, chair of theAll-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution after the publication of its report

A report from a key Oireachtas Committee has recommended access to the Dáil for MPs from the Six Counties. The development was welcomed by Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, who said if acted upon the report would lead to access to the Dáil with speaking rights for MPs from the North in special debates such as those on the Good Friday Agreement.

The report, published last week, is from the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution. Representation in the Oireachtas for citizens in the North has been urged by Sinn Féin since before the Good Friday Agreement. Welcoming the publication of the report as a very important first step, Ó Caoláin said:

"For decades Irish citizens in the Six Counties have been effectively disenfranchised and denied representation in the Oireachtas. The amended Article Two of the Constitution endorsed by referendum after the Good Friday Agreement placed a special obligation on the Irish government to ensure that the rights of Irish citizens in the Six Counties are vindicated.

"My Dáil office published Sinn Féin's Submission to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution as far back as July 1998. I personally met and lobbied the Taoiseach on this issue. Our submission proposed a right to attend and speak as a consultative member of the Dáil for all Six-County MPs pending the right of all representatives to full voting rights. We also urged full voting rights for citizens registered on the election lists in the Six Counties in referenda and presidential elections.

"The Report is not as far-reaching as the Sinn Fein proposals but it is a welcome and very significant first step. It will be a basis for action and a focus for debate. The onus is now on the legislators and the government in particular to put these matters into effect.

"This should be seen as part of the increasing development of institutions on an All-Ireland basis, a development of the Good Friday Agreement and all that arises from it.

"This is not a new issue. As far back as 1951 Seán MacBride put down a motion in the Dáil to give right of audience in the Dáil to parliamentary representatives of the Six Counties. That motion was rejected by the then Fianna Fáil government. Times have changed and the new dispensation brought about by the peace process at last means that this issue of constitutional rights is being seriously addressed."