Frances Black (Independent)
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I thank the Minister for coming in today and for his commitment and hard work. He has a tough road ahead.

I was at an event in Belfast a couple of weeks ago about the Supreme Court ruling. A political scientist, Brendan O'Leary, spoke on Skype.

He has a huge interest in this area. He spoke about the fears of a hard border, and his idea is that Westminster in particular does not really care about the North or about Ireland, and that it has to come from the Irish Government's perspective. We have to stand firm on not letting that hard border happen. It is a red line issue, and I would encourage the Minister to connect with him because he is a very bright man.

I have a couple of questions for the Minister about EU funding. I know that the Minister has done great work in this area. Does the Minister think that EU funding is dependent on the Assembly being in place in the North? We all know that the reason it has fallen is because of the lack of equality. Should the Irish Government encourage the DUP to agree to an equality agenda? It is really important that there are talks and connections with the DUP, in particular around the Irish language. My colleague, Senator Mark Daly, spoke in the Seanad recently about the 100,000 plus Irish speakers in the North. It is a huge issue. My father came for Rathlin Island, which is off north Antrim, and his grandfather spoke the Irish language exclusively. It means so much to people. It is part of people's identity, and it is a very important part of our culture.

I want to ask the Minister about the amendment calling on the UK to guarantee the rights of EU nationals living in the UK which was defeated in the House of Commons last night. That is very worrying. The Labour Party Whip's office tweeted, either last night or this morning, that: "The defeat of this amendment means that the agreements in the Good Friday agreement could be broken." The Good Friday Agreement is weakened by the defeat of this amendment. It should be rock solid at this point. Does this mean that Irish citizens living in the North will be treated as second class citizens again? What will happen?