Mr. Barry Andrews:

On the traction on the EU side, there is very positive engagement from the Commission. I have had discussions with a representative of the Commission on this proposal.

On the resolution itself, I referred to enhanced dialogue in my paper. There was some opposition to the idea of creating new structures, as they may reopen the trade and co-operation agreement and, therefore, provide leverage to the UK side to reopen elements it is not happy with. That is where the pushback comes from and it is why the resolution does not use the exact wording I had proposed. That is practical and there is enough in the wording to progress the proposal.

I have spoken to people about a referendum on Irish unity. There is a position that if the outcome of any referendum on Irish unity moved towards a unification of Ireland, it would trigger Northern Ireland coming into the European Union. The former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, achieved that in the European Council a few years back. There is a great interest in the potential disintegration of the United Kingdom and what it might mean. There is also a question of Scotland coming into the European Union, and this has implications for Spain and Catalonia, as the Deputy said.

I support the Taoiseach's shared island vision that this is not only about reunifying territory but primarily about unifying people. We are a long way from a border poll and Irish unity. One of the lessons of Brexit is that one does not hold a referendum when one does not know what the landing ground is. We have not held enough conversations politically on this island about what that landing ground would be. Sometimes the metaphor of an acquisition or a merger is used. I do not believe it will be an acquisition where Northern Ireland simply disappears. It will be more of a merger where two entities merge into a new one. We must have that discussion. We must have a landing ground that is clear to voters when they are voting, North and South, in a border poll.

We also must review the Good Friday Agreement. There has been discussion around parallel consent, a proposal made by the late Seamus Mallon some years ago. A huge amount of discussion needs to take place before we get down to triggering a referendum. That is widely accepted on the European Union side.