Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have heard many speeches about how we will respect the outcome of Thursday's referendum. That is correct as we discuss the implications of the British Government triggering Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon. However, it is worth noting that if this House had respected the outcome of our referendum eight years ago when we rejected the Lisbon treaty containing Article 50, there would have been no Brexit under the current format that we are discussing today. If the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and now leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Micheál Martin, took a different course of action, I wonder would there be a different set of events instead of those we are now facing and the catastrophe that some people are talking about.

However, regardless of what happens, we are where we are, as the famous saying goes. There is no doubt that we are entering a period of uncertainty. We have heard many predictions of how this will affect our economy, our GDP and our trade. The truth is that nobody knows how a Brexit will affect our country, Britain or the EU. The projections for the decline in GDP that the Department of Finance has given us or at least the slower growth rate are projections based on projections. We do not know if they will materialise, or if they will be more severe or even less severe. We need to ensure that any negative impact is reduced by working together, and if we can have a positive impact we need to try to secure that positive impact.

However, there are a number of certainties. With part of this island inside the EU and the other part outside, there will be an impact on that region. Unfortunately, that region, the Border region, is a region that is already suffering from deprivation, higher levels of unemployment and poverty compared with the rest of the State. What we are about to see will make life much more difficult.

People voted to leave for many different reasons. It is always dangerous to try to pin it down to one reason. We know there was a big argument over the idea of fortress Britain. It is not possible to have fortress Britain without doing something with the Border between the Six Counties and the Twenty-six Counties. That is a huge fear for people in that region - in the Six Counties and the Twenty-six Counties, and particularly in my constituency of Donegal, where our county border is with the rest of the Six Counties.

My children have grown up not to know or understand what a real border was like. I tell them stories as we pass Strabane or Aughnacloy about how British soldiers would stop people and empty out the bags. My auntie was in the house last week and talked about the days the children's nappies would be thrown all over the streets as they rummaged through people's bags to see what was in them.

The idea of going back to some type of hard border is a scary thought for many people. It will impact not just on individuals and tourists but will also have impacts in terms of trade, business and so on. Many groups rely on cross-Border funding. Many projects have been funded through the EU. Many farmers in the North have benefited from supports for agriculture. There is huge fear over what is coming down the line for these communities.

At the core there is hypocrisy in Irish politics when it comes to the EU because there is no space for real debate about the democratic deficit, unfair developments in the EU or militarism. With some of the debates we have had here, one could rewind the clock. When a referendum or something else gets defeated, those who argue against the result reject the language that we need to talk about the democratic deficit and they bat off any criticism as coming from the far right or far left on the basis that they know best.

The reality is that those who proclaim to love Europe most will see the inevitable destruction of Europe because of their failure to face up to what is, at the core, a democratic deficit. It is not a single issue. For some people it is TTIP. For others it is not being allowed to cut turf in the west of Ireland. For others still it is that we have signed away our fishing rights, or it is immigration, the refugee crisis or the economic crisis. We now have a tsunami of different crises leading to a view across Europe that the system is broken. This needs to be a big wake-up call for people who truly believe in a new type of Europe.

I believe we could take two routes. We could try to limit the impact of Brexit in terms of Britain and the North. Alternatively we could try to use this as an opportunity. Despite what Green Party Members, who have disappeared now, might say, a Border poll is not something new. I am sure they voted for the Good Friday Agreement. The Border poll was enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement 18 years ago. Sinn Féin has been saying this very clearly to the DUP and others. So it is no surprise that we want to see a Border poll in the term of this Dáil and of the Assembly. We have been saying that for the past five years. We have signalled that we would like to have a Border poll.

We are now saying that the only way to fulfil the democratic decisions of the people of the Six Counties to remain within Europe is to facilitate a Border poll and let them choose through a debate and talking about the choices as to whether they want to join a united Ireland, as allowed for under the Good Friday Agreement and be part of a European Union as a result of that. Some people, including those in the Labour Party, have said it will fail. However, two years before Scotland's referendum, YouGov polls showed that Scottish independence could not secure support above 32% support, yet it was only narrowly defeated. The polls now show that it would probably be successful.

Why can we not have a similar poll? We should use the opportunity to have a discussion and a lead-in period. Let all of us who want a united Ireland set out the challenges and benefits of having one. What would it mean for health, infrastructure, tourism, education, farming, sport and the economy? Let us put our money where our mouth is rather than suggesting that this would be a headcount and would be divisive. We are all big enough. We can have an intellectual debate. We can discuss it democratically. We have enshrined it in the Good Friday Agreement and it is a pity that parties such as Fianna Fáil, which has the strapline of being the republican party, and the Labour Party, which is so proud of its origins going back to James Connolly, have turned their faces against the idea of having a Border poll here but have no problem with supporting the idea of a border poll in Scotland.

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