Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach has told us time out of number that his position in the negotiations is one of 27. What people have been trying to convey to the Taoiseach for several months is this position is inadequate. The consensus is there needs to be a distinctive position regarding the island of Ireland in all its complexity and in the context of the Belfast Agreement being an international agreement to which the EU, made up of those 27 member states, has signed up.

The Taoiseach is going to face problems. The Taoiseach and previous Taoisigh have faced this before. The members of the European Council, the leaders of governments, often try to gang up. They have ganged up on Greece and attempted to gang up on the Taoiseach shortly after the previous Government came to office. The formula is being used again. The problem is that the island of Ireland, which we all understand, does not specifically feature. This is because it is an island where, in respect of these negotiations, the northern side of the Border is the United Kingdom's border and the southern side of the Border is the European Union's border.

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