Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No one has yet demonstrated that calling such a referendum would be anything more than a gesture at this time and we have no objective of exploiting the Brexit issue to pursue a divisive agenda.

The more urgent issue is protecting the full right to joint Irish and British citizenship for residents of Northern Ireland. We need the Taoiseach's assurance that he will not put up with any attempt to weaken this right on the part of the UK Government or the EU and I ask him to give this assurance. In essence, we will be faced with a situation where the largest number of EU residents living outside its boundary will be in Northern Ireland post-Brexit. It is a unique situation and those EU citizens demand special status and a unique approach and resolution in the aftermath of Britain leaving the Union and in terms of the future arrangements and relationship between the UK and the EU. As the forum the Taoiseach established recently illustrated, there is capacity to bring people together on the island on economic, industrial, farming, trade union and community issues, devoid of a political context saying they will used to browbeat people into a united Ireland. The approach in the context of Brexit should be to continue to work on the stakeholders and to get the right deal for the people of this island in respect of the impact of Brexit because it will be bad for Britain and the Republic but it will be worse than the previous two for Northern Ireland. That is what the economic analysis so far is telling us. We need to knuckle down on the practical implications of Brexit and come up with resolutions.

Has the Department examined the recent London supreme court case? In that case and the Belfast high court case, the UK Government has taken a disturbing approach to its right to change international agreements. I do not know whether the Taoiseach is aware of this but the UK Government rejected as irrelevant parts of the Good Friday Agreement which gives EU law a role in Northern Ireland institutions. It said that the Northern Ireland Assembly has fewer rights of consultation than the assemblies in Wales and Scotland. It also insisted that it may act unilaterally to withdraw from agreements. Has the Taoiseach considered this matter? What is his position on the position the UK Government took in the Agnew case, in particular? Has he conveyed to the UK Government the fact that we must agree before any changes are made to the content and implementation of previous agreements?

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