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

The recent discussions about establishing an Executive and allowing the Assembly to do its job showed very little, if any, progress. When announcing his urgent priorities, the Taoiseach stated that ensuring the Northern Ireland institutions were up and running would be one of those two priorities. When he made the statement, the expectation was that he was about to launch into a major series of meetings in order to knock heads together and find a way forward. Will the Taoiseach explain why this has not happened?

To outside observers, the Taoiseach has maintained the policy of recent years in taking a hands-off approach. Neither the Taoiseach nor British Prime Minister May have thought it necessary to attend or host any negotiations. Neither have they tabled any proposals for overcoming the blockages. Will the Taoiseach explain how something can be both a priority and a hands-off policy at the same time? Will he outline what structures are in place for discussing the hard detail of post-Brexit North-South arrangements?

I referenced the recent speech and contribution of former First Minister Arlene Foster in this regard and there was some need for reflection in this respect. She supported the Brexit campaign in the North but, coming from a Border area, she said she was fully conversant with the comings and goings of goods and services across the Border and the need for some common sense and realistic outcomes. It was a helpful contribution, perhaps illustrating the need for the Executive and Assembly to be re-established, with the North-South Ministerial Council to be used as a conduit and mechanism to articulate a coherent and consensus approach from within the North. It was an awful pity and wrong that the Executive was collapsed. There was no need to collapse the Executive, and as a result we have lost a mechanism whereby that common sense approach spoken about by Ms Foster and others in terms of Brexit, whether people voted leave or remain in the North, could have existed. At least there was a mechanism to try to get some route through this on the Brexit issue.

What mechanisms are in place for proposing and agreeing specific approaches to avoiding a hard Border? Will the Taoiseach provide those specifics?

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