Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also want to make the point that the grouping of these issues is not the way for us to get the maximum information on them. The Taoiseach will recall that I argued during the last Government that we should set aside dedicated time every month to deal with the North. We should not just be dealing with it in the middle of a crisis or when some other difficulty arises. I thought we had that understanding, so I would ask the Taoiseach again to reflect on the matter.

I want to concentrate my remarks on the North but I will make a few broad remarks on the issue of Brexit. Our problem, to which the Taoiseach referred, is not that the people of Britain would decide to leave the EU. Of course, we have a self-interest and there would be a negative effect upon fortunes in this State. However, our problem is that the North would be dragged with them, which would, because of partition, create particular difficulties. I am sure the Taoiseach agrees - he has had occasional forays north - that the physical border is all but invisible. None of us downplay the unfinished business that has to be done to remove the economic and political barriers and deal with the legacy issues, but a return to Border controls would be a very negative and retrograde step.

In my constituency, we are organising a conference early in June on Brexit. Business people and those in the councils and chambers of commerce on both sides of the Border want maximum co-operation and are trying to find ways to develop it. The economic and social impact of Brexit along the Border counties would be substantial. It would also be significant on this State, not least in our agricultural industry but in a whole range of other social and economic matters. Further, it would have an adverse effect on the all-Ireland bodies that are part of the Good Friday Agreement. I wonder if the Taoiseach has had the opportunity to raise these matters with the British Prime Minister and if the Taoiseach has asked him about any of those issues.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon in Stormont and I can tell the Taoiseach that I am very confident that the Executive will be elected tomorrow. In fact, Sinn Féin will be announcing our nominees for ministerial positions later on today. The Taoiseach will recall that it was agreed during the Fresh Start negotiations that arrangements would be put in place to facilitate the creation of an opposition in the Assembly.

The SDLP, the Alliance Party and the Ulster Unionist Party have decided to do precisely this, and that is a matter entirely for themselves. It is a pity they did not tell the voters this during the election. We recall that the UUP and the SDLP were two lead parties in the Northern Ireland Government for nine years and they made a mess of it. The political institutions were suspended twice, they crashed twice and they were down for almost five years during that nine-year period. Sinn Féin did not walk away during any of these shenanigans. Instead, we faced up to the challenges.

I am a united Irelander. Sinn Féin is a progressive republican party. We want to see all-Ireland governance, but the imperative at the moment is to build partnership, get to know our neighbours, try to remove divisions and try to move forward and deliver in difficult circumstances for the people in the North and throughout the island. Let us see how all of that develops.

Sometimes a mistake is made in this Chamber whereby the Government's role is defined as having to give support to people in the North. Of course that is part of it and no sensible person would repudiate that. Anyone who is progressive would welcome a greater involvement by the Irish Government in all of these issues in a strategic and sustainable way. However, as I have said many times, the big job of the Irish Government is to engage with the British Government. Its job is certainly to engage with our neighbours in the North in an ongoing and almost invisible way. It should be just as easy as breathing to be dealing with people in that part of the island. However, the Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty. There is a responsibility and obligation on the Government as co-equal guarantor of the Agreement to keep the British Government to account. It would be useful if our Government was a united Ireland government. I know that is the historical antecedent of the Fine Gael Party. The British Government is a Unionist Government, and it makes no bones about that. However, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement there is no legal, unconditional commitment to the union. In fact, it can be changed if a majority in the North vote for change. I believe that is what our Government should be doing on bread-and-butter issues, economic issues, legacy issues and all of the social and economic issues as well as on that major issue. Clearly, 100 years on, partition does not work. Whatever merit it had for the elites back in the day when it was imposed on us, now the North does not have the same importance in the context of the British State as an industrial hinterland and so on. I commend that approach to the Taoiseach.

Another specific issue that is the British Government has stated it will scrap the UK's Human Rights Act 1998. This is a crucial point. This threat was contained in the Conservative Party manifesto last year. The Act is a central part of the legislation for the Good Friday Agreement. Human rights activists are deeply concerned about the current status of this threat. A consultation was to be held, but it has not been authorised and has not happened. There has been a range of incoherent and flawed arguments from the British Government in support of its position. Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement the British Government is obliged to "complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the European Convention on Human Rights". The Human Rights Act gives legal effect to the convention. I am raising this as an issue of grave concern. What is the Taoiseach's up-to-date understanding of this? When was the last time he spoke to Mr. Cameron about it? If he has not done so recently, will he do so and report back to the Dáil at the earliest opportunity? In a sentence, what we need from our Government is consistent strategic engagement with the British Government in all of these issues.

We need quiet diplomacy and because it is an international agreement we ask the Taoiseach to look to our friends in the international community for their support in the implementation of this agreement.

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