Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I referred to the process of civil society dialogue and the various fora and sectors feeding into it. The clear message from Barnier and Verhofstadt key people in Brussels, is that a political solution is needed. By the time Article 50 is triggered, hopefully, what Britain wants will be clearer.

By then most of the problems in each of the sectors probably will have been identified. The clear message from the two officers I have referred to was that they want to see us coming up with practical solutions. We have got to move to that phase fairly quickly. There seemed to be an unequivocal expression that it is up to Ireland - and I am using the phrase on a Thirty-two County basis - to come up with practical solutions. We need to move into that phase. We will obviously meet a lot of opposition from the British Government. However, I think it would be true to say that they have never experienced anything like the number of people who are visiting in delegations North and South, putting their case. They seem to be very keyed-in on the issue of peace and the importance of the Good Friday Agreement but they want the practical solutions.

In terms of what Dr. Morrow said earlier about the process of the reconciliation issue and the impact on communities, we are all talking about the business sector. Maybe we need to focus more on the community.