Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Since I am coming under a bit of pressure to say something I should throw in a couple of my own thoughts and maybe Dr. Morrow would address them.

The question of the primacy of the Good Friday Agreement is primacy over what. At the moment it has the status of an international treaty, it is registered in the UN and is accepted in The Hague, the EU has endorsed it and so on. It has that status but we are now dealing with an exercise by the UK of a right that was given under the Lisbon treaty to opt out of the European Union. Ireland was party to that treaty also. We agreed that every member state had the right to leave. We did not say to the United Kingdom: "Sorry, you do not have a right to leave unless you get our consent." There is a complexity in that regard.

The second interesting point is the Good Friday Agreement acknowledges that both Governments recognise it is the right of a majority of people in Northern Ireland to determine one question only; whether the North remains in the UK or - with a single binary choice - becomes part of a united Ireland. It never said that Northern Ireland has the right to join the United States of America or to go in or out of the European Union. The choice that is guaranteed to the people of Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement is, as I see it, never a right for them to say they are sick of the European Union and they are getting out or that they want to join with Iceland or Scotland or whatever. It is a binary choice.

It is not an absolute constitutional autonomy which is given to them.

We have to remember that Mrs. Theresa May was a lukewarm supporter of the remain campaign. The previous Prime Minister resigned when he lost the referendum. Mrs. May formed a Government to implement the people's wishes in Britain. We cannot regard her as the person who has torn up the Good Friday Agreement. I think it is a negative view of her and that the pro-Brexit lobby was entirely indifferent to and negligent about the Irish issue. She was not part of it. She is now trying to pick up the pieces and to keep the Conservative coalition together until she gets her overall majority, in which case she will have a bit more elbow-room and a mandate to reach compromises. As I see it - just looking at the good things at the moment - the maintenance of the Good Friday Agreement is stated to be a British priority. It is also stated to be an EU and an Irish priority. We should not get up in a heap and say that destroying it is somebody's priority.