Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to meet Mr. Powell, albeit virtually. He states the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements were remarkably successful. I think we can all agree with that. They brought peace to this island. They ended a 30-year conflict and, as Mr. Powell says, they allowed political parties to concentrate on the day-to-day issues that affect people living in the North. However, Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement and everything that was achieved by it and by subsequent agreements. We have to acknowledge as well that there are still elements of those agreements that have not been implemented, thus the necessity for this committee.

In recent months and particularly recent weeks, however, I am seeing the undermining of everything the Good Friday Agreement stands for. It is being undermined by a small minority of people who live on this island - the DUP - and by the actions of the British Government. The British Government is about to breach an international agreement as it pursues its legislation in Westminster on the protocol. We think it is going totally the wrong way around trying to resolve the issues. We have no institutions in the North. The assembly is not meeting and there is no sign of that happening any time soon. The North-South Ministerial Council has not met in possibly a year. Everything the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements achieved is being totally undermined.

Besides replacing the British Prime Minister, which is outside our control, as someone who negotiated the Good Friday Agreement and has lots of experience in negotiating agreements between different nations, has Mr. Powell any advice or, if he does not think advice is prudent, some insights he could share with the committee? Our remit is to see the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. What can be done to address the current undermining of the agreement and pursue the elements that have not been implemented? Has Mr. Powell anything the Taoiseach and the Irish Government should be doing around this issue? I think they have been sort of meek in saying it is an issue between the British Government and the European Union. While I know it is an agreement between them, I think the Irish Government could be more vocal on this. It is affecting so many of our citizens.

Again, as someone who was involved in negotiating and drawing up the Good Friday Agreement, Mr. Powell has detailed knowledge of the British Government's intent regarding the criteria needed for a border poll. What are those criteria? Are they based on a census, election results or polls? It is something we need to be at least discussing and, we hope, preparing for. It is going to happen in the next few years. We need to be prepared and not go into it like they went into the Brexit referendum in Britain.