Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The original Brexiteer was here last week telling us about all the good things that could happen from being outside the Union and so on. Nigel Farage is known for many things but being a supporter of the European Union is not one of them. By his own admission, he spent 18 years working to undermine it. Interestingly - and it is symbolic of what has happened thus far - at the end of the day, when he was asked what would happen and what would replace what he had undermined, he did not know. None of the Brexiteers at the time or since has known either. They have shown no indication that they knew anything or had any alternative in mind. They had not and that is sad. It is easy to knock down something in place. It is easy to wreck and destroy. It is not so easy to come up with the alternatives. It is always easy to throw away something but to put it together again and restructure it is not so easy.

We need to reiterate emphatically again and again that we stand for what we have said. We need to stand over the interdependence of North and South on the island. The Single Market and the single entity must remain. Acting to the contrary will do irreparable economic damage to Northern Ireland and the South and, ultimately, to the European Union and the UK as well. I wish to emphasise, Vice Chairman-----