Should northern MPs have a seat in the Dail?

Gerry Adams has suggested that MPs elected in the north should be given a place in the Dail,with speaking rights but not voting rights. He says around the time of the GFA Bertie Aherne was agreeing to that but then backed off, claiming he wouldn’t get support from other parties.

Is it a good idea? Would it receive support from Fianna Fail or other parties now? Would Unionist MPs take up the invitation?

Let’s look at them in order. First, is it a good idea. I think so. When Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution were deleted, it expunged the southern state’s official claim on the north. That meant southern politicians could pay less attention to the north, since they’d abandoned the claim that the north was rightfully part of their jurisdiction. But to place emphasis on that would be to follow a red herring. With or without Articles 2 and 3, southern politicians by and large have shown little interest in the north,  so the removal of Articles 2 and 3 has only confirmed what we already know.

Would MPs in the Dail get the support of Fianna Fail now? It would if they thought it’d help that party’s comeback from the disaster of 2011. They’ve talked about setting up their party in the north for some years now, but to the best of my knowledge the progress has been nil. Would Labour or Fine Gael support the move? I don’t think I need to answer that one.

Would Unionist MPs take up the invitation? My instinctive reaction is to say No – I can’t see Sammy Wilson or Nigel Dodds getting to his feet in the Dail. But then again, wasn’t Sammy and Ian Paisley prominent in an ill-fated RTÉ show hosted by Rhonda Paisley? If Unionist politicians thought that making their voice heard in the Dail would make a difference to their political cause, you may be sure they would.

And what about nationalists/republicans? I’d say the great majority would favour it. If nothing else, speaking rights would allow northern MPs to point out the neglect of the north by the southern state over the decades. Right now, of course, in an election campaign, the south’s political parties can’t get enough of talking about the north. There’s Thomas Murphy and his alleged tax evasion, there’s Martin McGuinness’s speech at the grave of Seamus McElwaine, there’s Fianna Fail’s Niall Collins’s claim that Sinn Féin are not a political party at all, but a cult. (No, Virginia, I will resist your suggested word-play.) But other than to use it to damage Sinn Féin, southern politicians don’t give a damn about the north.

Do I think it would be a good idea? I do. Speaking rights would allow northern MPs (including Unionists should they so wish, remember) to keep confronting the south’s politicians and people with matters in the north. It would provide Northern MPs with a platform for commenting on things that need commenting on about life in the south. Above all would constantly remind the cosy cartel in the Dail that the people north of the border are their fellow countrymen and women. It might even remind southern politicians that the First Dail represented all of Ireland, not an amputated twenty-six counties.