Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2021-10-21
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Peadar Tóibín (AON), Meath West

There is no doubt that reconciliation is critical, but I think there is a misunderstanding in this State about what reconciliation means. Reconciliation is built on pluralism and by definition pluralism accepts there are differences and respects those differences. Reconciliation is about reaching out the hand of friendship. It does not mean that we have to dress up in each other's political clothes. Pluralism does not mean that unionists have to attend a 1916 commemoration. It certainly does not mean that nationalists have to attend a commemoration of partition.
In recent weeks the Government has engaged in verbal gymnastics. There has been a desperate search for a euphemism to hide what is actually happening here. What we see are two mutually exclusive and opposite actions happening and the Government claims they are both in agreement. By definition of physics it cannot be that the two decisions going in opposite ways can be in agreement at all. I do not think anybody is being fooled. Even Deputies from the Government parties are calling this out at the moment. While I welcome the Minister's opposition to partition, can he point to any actual examples of Government efforts to end partition since his party came into power?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-10-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-10-21