Cherishing all the children of the nation equally

It is an honour for me to stand once again before the Labour Party Conference. While this is not the first time I have addressed you as SDLP Leader, it is my first time to do so as MP for Foyle.

On behalf of everyone in the SDLP – as well as on a personal level – I want to thank Pat Rabbitte, Liz McManus and all the other Labour TDs and activists who came North to campaign with us in last year’s Westminster and Local Government Elections.

When many so-called experts were predicting that voters would walk away from us, you walked the streets and knocked the doors with us. And the voters stood by us and came out for us. I thank you for your hard work, just as I also thank all those from the other parties here in the South who supported us.

That broad solidarity reflects the unique position the SDLP holds in national democratic life. Just as the very warm response our good result got all over the country underlines the uniquely positive role for the whole island that the SDLP plays in the North:

• Leading and shaping the democratic nationalist consensus.
• Defending resolutely the honourable ideals of partnership, equality and respect for diversity. Rejecting absolutely sectarianism, violence and the divisions they foster.
• Fighting for social and economic justice for all. In Larkin’s terms, narrowing the gap between what is and what ought to be.
• An anchor for stability: An engine for change
• Standing up for true patriotic __expression. Measured not in the standards raised to hang tattered on lampposts. But in the standards we raise in our schools, our hospitals and across all our public services.
• Working not just to unite Ireland, but to unite the people of Ireland as well in equality, in prosperity, in peace. Truly a better way to a better Ireland.

The SDLP – like you and others - is restless to take this country to where it needs to go. We are hungry to get the Good Friday Agreement back on track so that we can all get back into the institutions. Not for the sake of being back in government. Not to rule, but to serve. Getting on with what people elected us to do. Not just working the institutions as they were before suspension, but making more of them and getting the most out of them for our businesses, our workers, our public services. Not least – but not only - through more and better cross-border approaches and all-Ireland initiatives as we have been promoting in our successful campaign "North South Makes Sense". Again I want to thank your representatives – and those of other Southern Parties – for your contribution to that success.

This is the positive agenda people want all the parties to be working on together. Making the decisive difference the people of Ireland want, need and deserve – socially, economically, culturally and environmentally.

In a matter of days we will see the 8th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. A realistic appraisal of the latest proposals from the two governments indicates that in the autumn we will be marking four years of the current suspension.

The Irish people’s overwhelming endorsement of that Agreement – North and South - was an act of articulated self–determination. It was the high water mark of Irish democratic life producing arrangements which are, uniquely, legitimate for both unionists and nationalists.

As democrats, we all have both the right and a duty to reaffirm the Good Friday Agreement as the compelling will of the Irish people. The British government had no vote in the referendum and the DUP voted no. Those of us who voted for the Agreement - and especially those of us who have upheld it - could usefully remind both of them of important democratic realities.

• The Good Friday Agreement is not the property of the British Government to chop and change at their own will or the whim of those opposed to it.
• The DUP have rights under the Agreement, they do not have rights over it. The Agreement and their mandate gives them some vetoes in the institutions, they should not have a veto on the institutions.

I would love to be able to say that I see more positive potential in the latest proposals from the two governments than I currently do. The SDLP encourage them to be firmer and go further. We have to hope that what the Taoiseach and Prime Minister announce on Thursday will not just be the sort of shadowy Assembly that would be right up the DUP’s street. Because that could only lead to a dead-end.

Their proposals will involve new legislation. The British government have some plans for that bill to include powers for the Secretary of State to alter aspects of the institutions and ( change working principles of the Agreement) by Order-in-Council. It is not just because we are about to mark the anniversary of the Easter Rising that we have to say no to a British Secretary of State arrogating to himself vice-regal powers to upset the carefully negotiated and properly mandated will of the Irish people, North and South.

I do not use this platform to question the Taoiseach’s good purposes and strong endeavours in all of this. I recognise that the Irish government finds itself with limited choices. My fear is that we could be on a path to even more limited choices for all of us. Where the choice we all made for the Agreement is possibly lost.

There is uncertainty about the import of the coming proposals. Likely confusion over differing reactions. There will be implications for the standing of the Agreement as supposed “alternatives” are increasingly canvassed. In this context I believe that the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation should be reconvened.

It could do more than help inform political understanding about the prospects and principles at stake now. It could help to frame how we tackle the task of national reconciliation. It would offer a more meaningful way of being respectful and receptive to unionists and to all victims than having to host dubious parades.

The anger and anxiety created by the Offences Bill is a reminder that we still have not fulfilled the Agreement’s promise to victims and survivors. We have to leave the past behind us on a moral basis. There is a Russian Proverb:

"To dwell on the past is to lose one eye. To forget the past is to lose both."

Working the Agreement is about creating a shared future. Part of the challenge of national reconciliation is how we share our divided past. The steps to mark the 90th anniversary of both the Eastern Rising and the Battle of the Somme are very welcome. There is valid debate about how adequate or appropriate are military commemorations. With the divisions of history also come divisions over history. The challenge of national reconciliation is encapsulated in how we ensure that when it comes to the centenaries of these events, all of us can commemorate them in the most inclusive ways possible. Maturely, responsibly, credibly, comfortably where none fear such memories being either abused or resented.

Carrying our divided past is important. Lifting our shared future is imperative. Can all parties North and South not join a democratic covenant that by 2016 we will truly have fulfilled the 1916 Proclamation’s commitment to treat all the children of the Nation equally?

In 2006, up to one child in three in this country – North and South - live in poverty. Many in extreme poverty. Nationalist, unionist, neither ; Catholic, Protestant, Dissenter and our full diversity of believers could combine in a proclamation of purpose : To eradicate Child Poverty in Ireland before 2016.

Let us resolve the promise and resource the means to ensure that no child anywhere on this island will be neglected, abused, passed over or failed by any service, any law, any authority.

Let us guarantee:

• A community where no child is ever left behind because of disability or left out because of colour
• A Nation where to be a child of Ireland does not have to mean a child of Irish parents 
• A democracy where children are not too young to be heard 
• A society where parents of an autistic child do not have to research, lobby and petition various service providers as though they are the first
• A culture where young women are safer on our streets and young men are safer on our roads
• An island where children and their families will be protected against persecution and prejudice as well as poverty
• An economy that invests in the skills and values the talents of all young people including those with learning disabilities
• A country whose services and systems, laws and budgets truly proclaim “Every Child is our Child”.

Back to Events