Debate contribution: Ireland and Northern Ireland — A Joint Census Publication 2021-2022

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 24 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

24 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Ireland and Northern Ireland — A Joint Census Publication 2021-2022

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5254525

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Do I have five or 10 minutes?

God or, in light of the previous business, whatever entity one refers to help all of you. I will not take all 10 minutes. This is an interesting subject for debate. There is a new census publication that looks at demographics on a cross-border basis. It is hugely useful, and it is important. It comes at the same time as a number of organisations are looking academically at the ways in which there is potential for greater economic growth, partnership and interdependence across the island of Ireland, as well as at the ways in which public services can be better and more appropriately delivered on a cross-border basis. We can all list examples of where the existence of the border, at least in a hard sense, is a distortion of the delivery of public services. One obvious way relates to healthcare. For example, we have a brilliant and still relatively new healthcare facility in the form of the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen. It is criminally underused, however, despite the huge public investment that went into it and the state-of-the-art theatres that are sitting there. Part of the reason for that is that, in large measure, citizens who live in Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan, south Donegal and north Sligo are not using its facilities, except in unusual circumstances, because they cannot. That is one of the distortions created by the border. It is therefore welcome that we are looking at the joint census publication. Even if you are not a designated nationalist or someone who believes in constitutional change, it is important that we understand the ways in which the different outcomes are being looked at in the joint census. If you are as geeky as I am and are interested in demography or genealogy, you can, of course, go online to the Irish public records office and look at the census records for 1901 and 1911. They are among the greatest historical records that exist for pre-partition Ireland. You can find your family entry. It is broken down by townland, and it is all-island, so it is 32-county.

In one sense, all that we are doing is rediscovering and recapturing the kind of data gathering that happened on the island before partition. Whether or not you have a view on the constitution that relates to reunifying the island, that is a positive step. Our amendment seeks to be more specific than the motion's theoretical positivity about simply gathering the data, so it looks with more focus at why you would want to gather it. Part of the reason why you would want to gather the data is not mentioned in the motion, and that is the fact that outcomes in most areas are so much better in the South than in the North. That is also one of the sharpest and most important reasons why, bluntly, many people are considering constitutional change and a new Ireland that is back inside the European Union. My party and I are completely unabashed in talking about that in the most optimistic and inclusive way that we can, because we think that the huge project for this generation and the next is to build a more empowered, inclusive, post-sectarian new Ireland. Our amendment makes it clear not just that gathering the data is a good thing but that Northern Ireland lags behind the Republic in the most critical areas. The North now lags several years behind the South not just in health outcomes but in life expectancy. We know that, when Ireland was partitioned, this was the most industrialised and richest part of the island. That was one of the reasons for the momentum behind the anti-home rule movement and the movement to create what became Northern Ireland. Since then, however, and certainly in the past few decades, we have completely changed positions. The South has raced ahead of us in economic performance, education and life expectancy. I do not say that to carp or crow but simply to say that those are the facts. Gathering the census data will demonstrate the many ways in which the gap in performance between the two parts of the island has widened. It is also true, as, I think, Emma Sheerin said in proposing the motion, that performance, whether it is measured in economic, employment or educational outcomes, tends to be worse in the areas that are closest to the border. The border counties have historically been the slowest-growing parts of both jurisdictions. That is one reason why, whatever your view on the constitutional future, those areas should continue to be primary and priority recipients of Peace funding. We do not want the census document just to be noted; as per our amendment, we want Departments to take active and proactive steps to use the information to find ways in which greater cross-border collaboration can be used to improve outcomes for the people who send us here. Once again, I say that without prejudice to the constitutional future. My party and I are clear that the best possible future for Northern Ireland and the whole island of Ireland is in a new Ireland without a border. However, I recognise that people have an equally legitimate aspiration to maintain the status quo. I want those people to embrace the potential for greater cross-border cooperation to drive better outcomes for people in the same way as I will champion and work in east-west and, as it were, UK and islands-wide collaboration that drives better outcomes for our people, regardless of the fact that I have a different constitutional aspiration. We cannot avoid the clear fact that is before us, which is that the South has raced ahead of the North on performance. I will give one reason why, perhaps, that is not in the motion. It is sometimes respectfully put to me that my party is not a 32-county party in the same way as Sinn Féin is. That is fine; it is a legitimate point. Sinn Féin has a particular analysis of many of the flaws of the Government in the South — there are many legitimate criticisms of them — but it is important that we acknowledge and say here that the Republic of Ireland has been, in broad terms, an astonishing success story since the 1980s. There are real challenges, particularly the distribution of wealth and the housing crisis, but, as advocates of a new Ireland, we would be kidding ourselves if we did not point to the many ways in which the South has transformed itself. It has gone from being probably western Europe's poorest country to being, per head of population, its richest. The next step, of course, is the need for it to become rich not only in theoretical terms or GDP statistics but in broader-based and more sustainable growth throughout the island and all the communities on it. I hope that, at some point, that will include people in this jurisdiction, as we choose a new future. However, in the meantime, we want all Executive Departments not just to note the census data but to work with it to actively find ways that they can use it to drive better performance. I mentioned health. I agree with the Education Minister on very little — I put my name to a no-confidence motion in him a fortnight ago, so I can hardly be said to be at the top of his Christmas card list — but I acknowledge that he is working with the Shared Island unit to drive better outcomes for working-class kids in the North. That is one of the areas for which he is drawing down funding. That is an example of cross-border collaboration. I welcome that, and it does not threaten his constitutional perspective. My gosh, if ever there were an area where we need more cross-border collaboration, it is in relation to the environment, not just because we share an ecosystem on the island but because of the protocol, the Windsor framework and the fact that we have an all-island animal health system. We share waterways, so the zebra mussels that are invasive and are damaging Lough Neagh have come up via the Shannon and the Erne, and our model of land ownership and small farming is cross-border because it predates partition. All those things inform the way in which we make public policy. Our amendment to today's motion is a constructive one. I am sometimes accused of not being constructive. I am never accused of being concise, but I have tried my best today, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Our amendment today is constructive. It is about acknowledging that the South has outperformed us, bluntly, in innumerable ways over the past decade or two. It is about mandating Executive Ministers to look positively at ways in which they can embrace cross-border collaboration and the information that will be in the joint census without prejudice to their constitutional view to build a better future for all of us in this society, whatever our constitutional view or identity, and to move beyond the barriers of partition, even if we do not share that constitutional aspiration.

1,540 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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