Michelle Gildernew MP - motion 131 and 137
Partition is not just bad for nationalists living in the 6 Counties, it is
bad for every citizen on this island. Our task is to end it.
We
need to move beyond the intransigence of unionism, past the dead hand of the
northern civil service and past the West Brit Dublin mindset that has
abandoned rural Ireland and our urban communities.
We need to
build on Good Friday Agreement commitments and deliver genuine progress on
the all-Ireland Agenda.
In February 2004 Sinn Fein submitted
detailed plans for the expansion of the all-Ireland Agenda. Others are now
catching up.
Peter Hain has now recognised that the Six Counties
is unsustainable.
Dermott Ahern's vision has now stretched past
Dundalk
The SDLP are moving towards the All-Ireland agenda.
I
welcome this. It is happening because Sinn Féin set the pace. But this
developing consensus must translate into action. We need to see new areas of
cooperation and common policy.
Nowhere is the all Ireland
approach more urgent that in tackling the rural crisis that is affecting
much of Ireland.
From a northern perspective there are clear
benefits in removing "UK" status from food exports from the North. We also
need to establish an all-Ireland food promotion agency and an all-Ireland
strategy to promote animal health and consumer confidence.
The
agricultural industry and rural life in Ireland is being continually damaged
by central government on both sides of the border, the EU and world economic
policies. It requires an urgent all-Ireland response.
We need
greater co-ordination across Ireland to find more effective ways to
challenge the implementation of the raft of EU directives that will have a
massive impact on the future of farmers.
In the area of GM food
and crops there is a need for a single response.
Rural
communities are right to feel betrayed. Farm incomes are plummeting,
promises of investment in employment; housing and infrastructure in rural
areas have been broken.
Thousands will leave the farming industry
in the coming years. While Rome burns the Irish government and British
direct rule ministers dither and all of the farm organisations and the many
vested interests look after their own members. They all know what the
problems are, but none have taken the initial steps to allow their
industries to come together to tell the governments what is required.
A
common agenda for Irish farmers, fishermen and rural communities is
essential. There is strength in unity. If Irish farmers took a minute to
examine how their French counterparts acted to support each other, they
might well learn that united we stand, divided we fall.