Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very calm about these matters, but I am also very determined that the Minister will not walk away from, wimp out on or equivocate on something that is clearly in the national interest. I am an Irish republican. My view is, and will always be, that the partition of our country has not served us well. We will be truly stronger together. In this turn of events and with this political earthquake comes a scenario in which Irish and British citizens - Nationalists, republicans, Unionists and loyalists - in the North who have expressed a wish to stay within the EU now have an avenue to achieve that through a referendum which is provided for in the Good Friday Agreement. Rather than the Minister rattling off his assumptions around things being divisive or destabilising, I ask him to trust the people in the North. They had a chance to hear the debate. They took their decision. Now let us use the mechanism we have to make good on that democratic verdict.

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