Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is great to see the MEPs here today. Normally when I am at committees such as this or discussing these matters in the Seanad, I am one of the few who voted to remain but it is good to see a fellow-Remainer here in Martina Anderson MEP today. I recently travelled to Brussels with a delegation from Border Communities Against Brexit and we met most of the MEPs. Unfortunately Luke "Ming" Flanagan MEP was tied up on that day so it is good that we can engage with him this afternoon. I was in the Seanad for a debate earlier so I am slightly late and I apologise.

In the course of all our engagements on the issue of Brexit, the Good Friday Agreement must have primacy. I have serious concerns on the nature of what the European Union's constitutional affairs committee referred to as an alteration of the Good Friday Agreement as a result of Brexit. I have raised this in the Seanad and at the Seanad's Brexit committee with a range of people who have come in to present to us. I have deep reservations about such a unilateral move, and the legality and political intent of that undermining and alteration of the Good Friday Agreement, which is the result of a vote taken by people by this State to endorse its structures and its all-Ireland and east-west strands.

Do the witnesses have a view on that statement by the committee? What is the outworking of that and what can MEPs continue to do to ensure that unilateral and unwanted alteration of the Agreement's structures does not take place?

What is becoming increasingly apparent regardless of the nuanced views on Brexit and its complexities is the growing consensus that there are two ways to mitigate against a hard Brexit. A blind man on a galloping horse could see that we are in for a hard Brexit. That is the political and ideological trajectory of the Tory party in England. As mandated by the Dáil, one of the ways to mitigate against it is a special designated status. What engagements have the MEPs had on that proposal? How has it been received? What would it look, taste and smell like for people living across the island?

The second way to mitigate against a hard and unwanted Brexit is the natural outworking of the Good Friday Agreement, that is, a poll on Irish reunification. In some of my dialogue and engagement in Brussels recently, that featured in discussions with colleagues from across the EU and the political spectrum. It is a perfectly legitimate democratic aspiration and we should not be sitting back waiting for it to happen. Rather, we should modestly or, indeed, proactively work to try to bring it about.

What struck me about the North's 56% vote to remain was that it came from all shades of political, traditional and cultural backgrounds. The recent attainment of a guarantee that Ireland in its entirety will be returned to the EU if and when we reunify the country will add considerable food for thought for people. If the witnesses could refer to these matters, it would be useful for us.