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

It is seven months since the Brexit referendum. The failure to go beyond generalities has now gone from frustrating to causing widespread concern. In past negotiations, such as those on the fiscal treaty and EU debt terms, the Taoiseach perfected a strategy of refusing to say what he was looking for until the negotiations were over, after which he would declare the negotiations as a major triumph for Ireland. The worst example of this was, of course, when he said we were about to get billions for bank recapitalisation. We both asked for this and received exactly nothing. The Taoiseach will remember that famous meeting. This cannot go on.

The Taoiseach keeps on saying everybody is in favour of maintaining the common travel area and protecting the Good Friday Agreement but nobody has spelled out what that means. The common travel area has always been about more than just presenting passports at the border; it is about an automatic right to work, claim social protection payments, use the health service, vote and gain access to the education system on the same terms as citizens of the relevant jurisdiction.

There are three major urgent matters requiring clarification. Has the Taoiseach said to Prime Minister May that we will not agree to diluting the role of the European Convention on Human Rights in Northern Ireland's peace settlement? Second, has he said to her that any amendment to the role of the European Union in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 must be subject to previous negotiation? Finally, has he said to her and the European Union negotiators that Northern Ireland residents must retain their core rights as EU citizens? Northern Ireland will have the largest bloc of EU citizens living outside the European Union after Brexit. These are very basic questions. These are fundamental points that should not be open to negotiation. Could the Taoiseach indicate whether he asked those three specific questions of the British Prime Minister?

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