This is about the future.

If we want to convince people that we should share this island, Sinn Féin needs to stop glorifying past atrocities.

Deputy Stanley raised the issue of Narrow Water, the terrible atrocity there and the British establishment needing to learn lessons. He was, in my view, referring to what happened to Louis Mountbatten and two young boys who were murdered at Mullaghmore and to others. I understand that Sinn Féin will never condemn that atrocity. I ask Deputy Carthy to do so. That would be a step to the future.

I heard the mother of Paul Maxwell on Joe Duffy's "Liveline" two weeks ago talking about what happened. The people who detonated that bomb could see who was on the boat. I cannot get that image out of my mind. They pressed the detonator and killed young people in a merciless way.

What would really advance reconciliation and understanding would be if Sinn Féin, in an unequivocal manner, condemned that atrocity. I think Sinn Féin should do so. The endless attempt by it and others to glorify terrible atrocities in the past is holding back reconciliation in this country. Sinn Féin has a one-sided approach to history and a one-sided narrative. It is Sinn Féin's way and no other way.

That is my answer. Sinn Féin needs to face up to that and deal with it. I do not know whether it is that Deputy Carthy knew people who were involved in that atrocity that he is reluctant to condemn it. I ask him to condemn it. It is a very serious issue.

We have had too much in recent times of Sinn Féin spokespeople saying different things to suit different agendas at different times. The overarching narrative has been that what Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA did in all circumstances was justifiable and so on. There is a lack of a candid approach in terms of having the guts to condemn an atrocity committed by the Provisional IRA. That, by any standard, was one.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of the all-island approach to Covid-19, as did Deputy McDonald. As far as Covid-19 in the North is concerned, I have left politics outside the door in all my dealings with the First Minister and deputy First Minister. I respect the two jurisdictions and I respect there are two chief medical officers. I am not sure Deputy McDonald has always left politics outside the door in relation to that issue because she sometimes sought to blame the Republic. In more recent times, there has…

The House will recall that in February 2014, the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, appointed Seán Guerin SC to carry out a review of the actions taken by An Garda Síochána pertaining to certain allegations made by Sergeant Maurice McCabe. Mr. Guerin provided his report in May 2014, and following a meeting with Mr. Kenny, Alan Shatter resigned from the Government. Mr. Shatter made clear in resigning that Mr. Guerin had not asked to interview him, as he would have expected if his intention was to reach conclusions about Mr…

There has been ongoing correspondence with the former Minister, Mr. Shatter, on this issue and this is the culmination of that correspondence.

I attended a meeting of the European Council in Brussels last Thursday and Friday, 10 and 11 December. I also attended a meeting of the Euro summit. We began as usual on Thursday with an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. In his contribution, President Sassoli stressed the urgency of having the recovery plan and multi-annual financial framework, MFF, which were agreed by European Union leaders when we met last July, in place and accessible from the new year. We also paid…

The Deputy has deliberately distorted and misrepresented what I said on the last number of occasions. On no stage have I ever suggested that other nurses exploit student nurses. That is a complete untruth. I said any employer that would take from a student his or her full student status, which is what the nursing degree is about, and use him or her on a 13-hour roster to work and not pay him or her is responsible for that exploitation, not fellow nurses and I never said that. The Deputy knows I did not say that, bu…

The nursing degree programme, nurse education and the quality of it is not a tangent. It is at the very core of this issue and Deputy McDonald has steadfastly refused to address it because she knows the truth. The truth is that one cannot have both systems.

I did not interrupt the Deputy. We cannot have both and she is pretending we can. She is not being honest in this debate. The heads of schools and departments of nursing are very clear that supernumerary status is a fundamental expression of full student status, which has ultimately brought enormous benefits to the professions of nursing and midwifery, to the health services and to society. I invite the Deputy to talk to the chief nursing officer.

I have worked with chief nursing officers in the past. Their greatest ambition was to move out of the dark ages and move into modern nurse education. Student nurses in first year should not have to work a 13-hour shift. They should not.

They have nine weeks of clinical placement for the entire year. That clinical placement should be protected and Deputy McDonald should be demanding that it be protected.

Everyone in this House should be doing that because it is the right thing to do by the students.

Otherwise it is not a learning environment. Let us not kid ourselves and pretend it would be if people were working during the night and at 2 o'clock in the morning as first year nursing students on a nine-week placement. The nine-week placement is about learning.

It should not be about working rosters. This is not as simplistic as the Deputy wants to present it for political gain and to win votes and to be popular.

That is the easy thing to do in here-----