Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are actions the Irish Government can take and it has failed to do so. The reason it has failed to do so is it wants to be diplomatically in tune with the fact the Northern state at this point remains part of the British state. The Government dances around all of this, whereas what our Government needs to do is what they British Government does really well, which is stand up for the national interest, meaning the interests of the people of the entire island of Ireland. This is an absolute necessity if we are to ensure we are ready to face into these negotiations and that we are not divided further and reinforce the divisions already reinforced by Britain's exit from the EU.

7 o’clock

Special status would ensure that the whole island can remain within the European Union. We call on the Taoiseach to make this case strongly on 29 April. Those 27 states will ultimately decide the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, and the Taoiseach needs to be clear, as leader of one of those states, that he is not going to countenance a land frontier on the island of Ireland.

I listened keenly to the Taoiseach's and the leader of Fianna Fáil's initial responses in the wake of the Brexit vote. They were a bit mesmerised by what the British were going to do and used many meaningless phrases and sound bites. The British Government - the English Government - does not give any attention to, or care for, either the people of Scotland or the people of Ireland, specifically the people of the North of Ireland. What we and our Taoiseach need to do is to take the proposition of a special designated status for the North within the EU and promote and actively advocate for that. That is the way to protect the economies and communities of the island and to minimise the disruption Brexit will cause.

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