Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not take lectures from the Taoiseach about my responsibilities or, indeed, the responsibilities of Sinn Féin. We are very aware of those and we look to his Government to uphold its end of all that.

However, he refused to answer my question. I asked him where he has said to the British Government that it should accept the vote of the people of the North. The Taoiseach clearly did not put that position but the main thrust of what I was trying to say was that these are draft negotiating guidelines and he has the opportunity to secure a stronger position. For example, he may know that the European Parliament voted earlier on a joint resolution, which contains stronger commitments about the North and the island of Ireland than either the Government's position or these guidelines.

I am sure the Taoiseach knows that the only way to stop a hard economic border on the island of Ireland is to have special status for the North within the EU. I come back to what I said previously. The Taoiseach should have been seeking the type of position which the Spanish secured. His answer shows he does not understand his responsibility as Taoiseach under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement because there is now a new relationship. He has equal responsibility along with the British Government for all of this new relationship. Will the Taoiseach commit to looking for an amendment between now and 29 April? He should say "yes" or "no".

Will the Taoiseach commit to that? Will he say "Yes" or "No"?

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