Northern Ireland
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
============================================================

Thomas Gould (SF), Cork North-Central

The Minister of State spoke about all the necessary preparations if there is to be a referendum. It is nearly 30 years since the Good Friday Agreement. Now is the time to honour and commemorate the 30th anniversary by having these conversations. While I welcome Fine Gael's announcement about a blueprint for a unified Ireland, it is not a united Ireland. I recognise, however, it is a step in the conversation. Bringing forward a united Ireland is not just Sinn Féin's job; it is the job of all political parties and none. It is the job of all aspects of society to come forward with solutions. We want to engage with everyone - with unionists, loyalists, people of all different faiths and different politicians on the whole island. To move forward with a referendum on a united Ireland, we need to have the citizens' assembly. We are asking the Government to bring this forward. We will have Private Members' business in the Dáil next week and that will be a vital part of it. We are asking to engage with all members of the Government to bring that forward.

---

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/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02