Northern Ireland
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown

I agree the Government has made its position on the decision of the Parades Commission clear, although that was quite a number of days ago. I am not clear on what is happening from the Government in terms of the diplomatic efforts the Minister referenced. It would be helpful for us to know more about what exactly the Minister is urging people to do. I appreciate the jurisdictional issues, in that the Government does not have jurisdiction, but it has a huge diplomatic role to play in Dublin in respect of what is happening right now.
We know that the Parades Commission decision was wrong. We appreciate that there is complexity around that. More information is needed on that and on what happened with the PSNI's advice, which seems to be a complete misread of the situation. I heard the Taoiseach speak about it this week during Leaders' Question. He suggested that people were demonising the chief constable. That is not the case. We can call out an act that is wrong done by somebody who has also done good work. It is important that the Government asserts that view and makes sure those elements and levers that are available to the Government are being pushed. We cannot go back. This is a lifetime of trauma. There are generations of trauma for this community that needs to be handled delicately before we dial things back, as is the risk.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01