Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is missing the point. The mechanisms in place under the Good Friday Agreement have not been utilised over the past five, six or seven years to their full potential and we need to consider adding to them. The most recent summit of the British-Irish Council was held in Cardiff in November 2016. The next one will take place in the North of Ireland in June 2017. It is too loose. We need to consider strengthening these ties post-Brexit but plan for it now. This is not part of the Brexit negotiations. It is a matter of seeking to underpin the Good Friday Agreement and moving on further from it in consideration of what is a potential reality of a future reunification of this country and this island. We cannot just stand still. This Government and the previous one have approached the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement in a very lackadaisical, laissez-faireway. Has Government given any consideration to the establishment of new formal structures for dialogue between Ireland and Britain, and the North and the South?

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