Ireland of Equals Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Ard Fheis speech by Michelle Gildernew, MLA and MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone

Michelle Gildernew, speaking on motions 131 and 137, on an all Ireland approach to the rural crisis.

It is time to challenge the smugness of southern politicians. Partition is not just bad for nationalists living in the 6 Counties.

People in the 26 Counties lose out because of partition just as people in the 6 Counties lose out.

People in the northwest, people in border areas all lose out because of partition.

But there is a way past all of this; past 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.

It is by building on Good Friday Agreement commitments; by delivering on the commitments already agreed by the British and Irish governments to deliver genuine progress on the all-Ireland Agenda. By making the most of the development opportunities of the Common Chapter.

In February 2004 Sinn Fein submitted a detailed 75-page document outlining plans for the expansion of the all-Ireland Agenda. Finally now others can help us develop the necessary consensus to deliver on that.

In recent times Peter Hain has recognised that the Six Counties is unsustainable. Now even Dermott Ahern is looking past his blinkered narrow electoral agenda.

Sinn Féin set the pace. Now others are catching up. This developing consensus must translate into action.

It must translate into new thinking and a new willingness to press ahead.

We need to see new areas of cooperation and common policy.

In areas such as education and health can we open the doors of opportunity. Projects such as the proposed Autism Centre and the cancer research partnership between the north and south of Ireland and the USA pool resources and expertise were developed when Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brún were ministers in the 6 County Executive.

Yet, 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.

Central to any long-term strategy to build on high value produce must be a commitment and the political will to build on the well established internationally recognised clean green Irish brand.

Market development also demands a priority to moving towards a single all-Ireland system of traceability to bring as much confidence as possible to potential markets.

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. Across the island we need one policy on this - a GM-free Ireland - because cross-contamination of hybrid plants and crops could contaminate the whole island.

It is a time when the future of rural Ireland should be at the top of the political agenda.

Rural communities and farmers are right to feel betrayed. Farm incomes are plummeting, promises of investment in employment; housing and infrastructure in rural areas have been broken. Yet, farmers and rural dwellers have not had their voices heard because of a policy of divide and conquer.

Sugar growers are suffering, Beef farmers have mounting losses and Dairy farmers are getting squeezed more every day. Thousands will leave the industry in the coming years. Fishing communities and rural villages have suffered more than most. But there is little sense of solidarity among different farming interests.

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. The coming together of the many disparate rural interests across the island will be of long-term benefit to rural communities short-changed by selfish interests in Dublin, London and Europe. There is strength in unity.

Farm families from across the island are realising that the establishment is not listening. Tens of thousands of people have been forgotten about across a host of policy areas from healthcare, to schools, roads infrastructure and income levels. Rural Ireland has been disenfranchised by the administrations, north and south.

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.