Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the Minister's statement that the British Government will have to show its commitment early on. That is the message we need to get out to the electorate here, that our Government and its European counterparts will ensure we will not have meaningless phrases from the Head of the British Government or other members of that Government or at official level. This is the last Question Time we will have before the British general election and the resumption of talks on the need to have the Northern Ireland institutions restored. There is a huge urgency, as we all know, in ensuring that the Northern Ireland institutions are restored. They are critical to ensure we have the outcome to the Brexit negotiations that we all want and to try to limit the damage as much as possible to all of this island. I appeal to the Minister again to ensure that at Government level, after the formation of the new British Government, he repeats again the need for the British Government to show its commitment early on and to show clarity regarding what it would see as the arrangements that will exist between this island and Britain post-2019.

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