Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the ambassador. I was walking out as he was coming in but that was not intentional and no offence was intended.

In fairness, we are in a much better place than we were when we spoke previously. We all welcome that fact that the Windsor Framework is in place. I do not think the ambassador will be shocked to hear that we have particular issues and do not believe Brexit was a great idea. Britain has absolute rights with regard to what it wants to do.

I would state, obviously, that the people of the North did not vote for it but anyway, we are where we are. I accept that the ambassador is not necessarily utterly responsible for what every British Government decides to do, but the position the DUP found itself in would have related an awful lot to decisions, statements and interactions with Boris Johnson. I do not think that has been helpful.

We all want to see the Executive up and running. There needs to be a case of ensuring that momentum is maintained. The DUP has some sort of notion with regard to some legislative fix. In fairness, we might not have any major difficulty in that regard. It is the timeline, however. We are always worried around slippage at this time of year. This is 12 July. It is the marching season. That limits things sometimes. Unionism finds that limiting regarding what moves it can make. We need this not to stretch on forever. That is the big issue. I am sure that from a British Government point of view, it needs that to be done as well. It probably makes life easier with regard to engagement across Europe and with the American Administration and all the rest of it, as it should be. I accept there is room for co-operation.

I will put this on the record, and it is not the first time anybody here has voiced their dissatisfaction with the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill at this point in time. I have a particular view about that. The British Government does not want to deal with its particular actions in the conflict. I accept that nobody has clean hands. It is not only about ensuring that those who wore British uniforms do not go to jail. It also relates to the fact of not wanting to deal with the collaboration with loyalists who were at times used as proxies. Anyway, that is where it is. There is absolute agreement across the island of Ireland in that regard. I will ask the ambassador for an answer on that.

I agree with him around the issue of migration. To refer back to Boris Johnson, he brought the conversation on migration into a particularly strange place as regards Rwanda and whatever else. There is an element of British politics that still finds itself in that place whereas when I look across Europe, we must have a sensible solution for dealing with people who are fleeing from absolute disaster, whether it is war, climate change or whatever else. We also all operate in economies and societies where we could not operate without economic migrants and others, and I do not think we have actually put all those pieces together. That needs to happen. It goes without saying that the war in Ukraine has shown up the issues that exist with regard to energy security. There are major issues with regard to climate change and all the rest of it but we all have to move in the direction of renewables. Obviously, from an Irish perspective, there are huge advantages in that.

I am not sure whether the ambassador will want to answer my next question. Non-alignment and neutrality has come up in the last while and one of the issues that has been put up is the deal or no deal with the Royal Air Force, RAF. If the ambassador wants to give an answer on that, he might be somewhat more forthcoming than the Government. I think that is a sufficient amount to get the conversation started.