Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
============================================================

Ivana Bacik (LAB), Dublin Bay South

What was particularly impressive about the calm dignity of the Garvaghy Road residents when we met them last Thursday was their concern for a younger generation and to ensure that the dark days of the past would not be repeated for a generation of people who had happily grown up under peace and the Good Friday Agreement. That is why this is now so grim. I agree with and welcome the Taoiseach's strongly worded views on the decision of the Parades Commission. We all share his view that it was an unacceptable and incomprehensible decision. Of course, the most important thing now is to ensure that nobody is injured, or worse, but the longer uncertainty prevails and the longer the standoff continues, the worse the risk for Garvaghy Road residents, the younger generation and all of those who we had hoped would never experience those horrors again in their lifetime.
What we would like to know, from the Opposition side, both the Labour Party and our sister party, the SDLP, is what that pathway the Taoiseach speaks of is. When will the mediator be appointed? Can we see a way to appoint a mediator as soon as possible? If not, then why are we not talking about section 11, which is part of the architecture of the Good Friday Agreement? The power of the Secretary of State to prohibit a parade without any veto from the PSNI or the commission is there in the 1998 legislation. There can be an enabling consultation but no right of veto. The Secretary of State must be prepared to utilise that power rather than run the risk of violence on the Garvaghy Road.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29