Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Today marks a frustrating day for Northern Ireland. The majority of people there voted against Brexit, and at lunchtime today a letter from Theresa May will be presented to Donald Tusk as the UK activates Article 50 to begin the process of leaving the EU. We face the prospect of a hard Border with at least some, possibly major, changes to trade on our island, and even larger disruption to our all-island links but Northern Ireland has no power sharing Executive to advocate on its own behalf.

A week ago Martin McGuinness was laid to rest and I pass my condolences to the family of Martin. I sat across the table from him when I accompanied the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, during the Fresh Start negotiations and I developed a great respect for him on a personal level. I was always struck by the fact that he was as comfortable travelling the world, marketing Northern Ireland as a place to invest, as he was back home in his native Derry. I offer my personal condolences to the Sinn Féin Party and to Mrs. McGuinness and their family, as well as the people of Derry because he was of Derry and that gave him a humility. He always had a sense of where he came from and whether he was in Washington or elsewhere he always felt the draw of his native Derry. He will be sadly missed by people across this island.

Many of the principal actors from the peace process gathered in Derry - people who put years into securing a lasting legacy of peace for Northern Ireland. It is nearly two decades on since the Good Friday Agreement but, once again, the formation of a power-sharing Executive is holding the future of Northern Ireland back.

There is no desire for another election nor do we want to see direct rule imposed. A London Administration distracted by Brexit is not in a position to secure fully the future of Northern Ireland. Some of the same issues that arose during the previous negotiations on the Fresh Start agreement and at Stormont are still on the table now. I refer to the Irish language Act, fiscal matters, the bill of rights and legacy issues including equality generally and marriage equality in particular. New elections will not achieve anything. There is now a window up to Easter to reach agreement and I hope that opportunity can be seized.

On Brexit and the North-South relationship, the Labour Party supports the call for a bespoke deal for Northern Ireland to address the following issues post-Brexit: the strengthening of existing all-island institutions, continued cross-Border co-operation, guarantees of funding for Northern Ireland beyond 2020, recognition of the rights of the 200,000 persons resident on the island who are neither Irish nor British citizens and the need for parity of esteem in human rights protections across the island.

This week we published a comprehensive paper on Brexit with 20 key actions we call on the Government to take. Four of those actions relate directly to Northern Ireland and another three relate to the common travel area. There is no simple solution to resolving the problems the island will face when the UK exits the European Union and the potentially devastating impact it will have on Northern Ireland and the peace process.

We support the call for special status for Northern Ireland within the European Union. However, with no settled position among the Northern Ireland parties and the absence of a power-sharing Executive, combined with the stated intention of Prime Minister May for the UK to exit the Single Market, a possible path forward has been outlined but with no leaders from the region in a position to advocate within the European Union for it. We believe there should be a separate strand to the Article 50 negotiations to deal specifically with Ireland-UK issues and Northern Ireland. Failing that, European Union consent should be granted for a bilateral agreement to be negotiated between the two jurisdictions to address Border issues. That must be addressed when Donald Tusk and the European Council provide their negotiating priorities to the European Commission.

It is our belief that a new Irish protocol to the European Union treaties must be included following Brexit. Such a protocol would acknowledge and recognise the special circumstances that apply on the island of Ireland. We support special status for Northern Ireland. However, no united position has emerged in Northern Ireland or in the UK that could or would negotiate for such an arrangement. An Irish protocol must also provide for any future united Ireland or other transitional status. I welcome the clarity on this issue secured by the SDLP yesterday that Northern Ireland, if united with Ireland, would not be obliged to reapply to join the European Union.

The Labour Party has also called on the Government to ensure that the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement is maintained in future negotiations, upholding the principle of parity of esteem in human rights protections across the island, as guaranteed under the Good Friday Agreement. Of particular concern to us is how the rights of more than 30,000 cross-Border workers will be accommodated and protected in the future. Employment rights should be protected, either in the final EU-UK exit agreement, in a new Irish protocol to the European Union treaties or in a separate bilateral agreement between Ireland and the UK. Again, that overlaps with the common travel area and the rights provided through it.

There has been too little discussion about the future of the North-South cross-Border implementation bodies. Clarification is needed on how the six bodies will continue to operate and how they will be funded into the future. There will be specific European Union frontier border issues that will affect the operations of Waterways Ireland and the Loughs Agency. New cross-Border bodies could resolve Brexit issues in energy and the agriculture sector. There are a number of policy areas in which all island co-operation has intensified and strengthened in recent years through the North-South Ministerial Council. Co-operation has been focused in six areas, namely, agriculture, education, environment, health, tourism and transport. Integration has also been strong in many specific sectors and areas, for example in animal welfare, cross-Border trade in livestock and agricultural products such as milk, the energy sector, promotion of the island of Ireland and accident and emergency service planning for hospital catchment areas.

There is also now the potential for the creation of new North-South bodies to address the problems that Brexit and a hard Border could create. The SDLP has proposed a number of new structures which we believe deserve strong consideration. We also believe a new body to oversee the all-island energy market is required. The creation of those would require extensive consultation and detailed technical work. At a minimum, the North-South bodies should be specifically recognised in the proposed Irish protocol to the European Union treaties along with provision for the creation of new bodies.

The Labour Party also believes that future funding should be guaranteed by the UK Government beyond 2020 for a new PEACE V programme, and that a European Union contribution could be channelled to the Special European Union Programmes Body, SEUPB, through the Irish Government. Our view is that the UK exiting the EU is harmful to future UK and Irish joint co-operation regarding Northern Ireland and the peace process. We believe we must now redirect our efforts to ensure that the advances for Northern Ireland, as secured through and within European Union structures, are maintained and to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement is not undermined by the UK exiting the European Union. British representatives must take the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement into account in their negotiations with European Union officials. The Labour Party considers the return of a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland to be unacceptable.

I will conclude by referring to the RHI scandal, which I had not intended mentioning. It has cost the British Exchequer approximately £500 million at this juncture. It speaks to the need to ensure the budgetary control elements that were stitched into A Fresh Start, The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan. I refer specifically to 4.1 under the budget controls heading.

The UK Government welcomes the Executive's plans to establish an Independent Fiscal Council for Northern Ireland. The Council will: prepare an annual assessment of the Executive's revenue streams and spending proposals and how these allow the Executive to balance their budget.

The RHI scandal speaks volumes to the culture of governance within the Executive. In my short time there I observed that oversight of spending was perhaps lacking due to it being a political system where people operate within very distinct and bespoke political silos in terms of running Departments. Far be it from me to comment on the internal affairs there, except to say that £500 million could have bought a lot of new infrastructure. I think in particular of the A5 road from Derry to Dublin, in respect of which the Irish Government has already committed moneys.

If we are to move forward to a better Executive, which is something I am hopeful will transpire, we must have greater tyre kicking on the way monies are expended, particularly from a fiscal point of view. There is a piece within the Stormont House Agreement and the Fresh Start programme on the creation of a fiscal council. I am not sure what progress has been made on a council, but if it were established, all parties in a new Executive could buy into it in relation to budgetary oversight. It would help to ensure that whatever political silos operate from a ministerial point of view and which party is running what, matters were not left to special advisors and Ministers. As such, the civil service framework would ensure that there was proper tyre kicking and we would not have these scandals emerging such that those who live within the Six Counties might not take the present cynical view, as I perceive it from my conversations on the ground, of how the Executive operates at times.

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