Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms O'Connell for a comprehensive, forthright and frank contribution. Politics is politics but it is refreshing to hear the reality of what Brexit is going to do and the impact it will have on our people. In the vast majority of instances, the effects will be negative and sometimes we just need to call a spade a spade and not dance around the issue. We have political responsibility to people across the island of Ireland to try to offset or mitigate against some of that and it is quite refreshing to hear contributors being so frank with us in terms of the negative impact.

Ms O'Connell made reference to the all-island civic dialogue and I agree it was a very useful exercise. It is a pity that it took so many of us having to argue for that continuously but nevertheless, it happened and it was very inclusive and positive.

In one form or another the bulk of Members of the Seanad support a form of special designated status. The Dáil has mandated the Government to negotiate a special status for the North. That is also the view of the majority of the MLAs elected to the assembly in March. Does Ms O'Connell have a view on the emerging campaign for special status and does she see a role for her organisation in that? It is a positive and sincere reaction, albeit people have different views on what it might look like. What does she see as the importance of special status and where should it sit within our dynamic moving forward?