Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Beidh mé ag roint mo chuid ama leis an Teachta Crowe. My colleague will focus on key issues on the agenda for the Council meeting, while I will focus on Brexit.

Last Monday David Davis and Michel Barnier met for the first time to formally launch the Brexit talks. Britain has now agreed to negotiate the divorce deal first and then to move on to its future relationship with the European Union. This represents an embarrassing U-turn for Theresa May. The three priorities set by the European Union and agreed for the initial phase of talks are the rights of EU citizens living in Britain andvice versa, the financial settlement and the Irish question - the border on this island.

Given the disastrous impact Brexit will have on the island of Ireland, it is more important than ever, now that the formal Brexit negotiating process has started, that we secure designated special status for the North within the European Union and that the Government join in the efforts to secure it. A motion was passed by the House to that effect, although it was not supported by the Government.

Last Monday the Taoiseach was also in 10 Downing Street to meet the British Prime Minister.

Having talked tough on the issue of Brexit during the course of his leadership campaign, I was expecting him to argue the case for the North of Ireland to remain in the Single Market and the customs union. I was not expecting to him to allude to the "Love Actually" movie but, that aside, I was extremely disappointed with his public call for any land border in Ireland to be invisible. I believe that entirely misses the point. Any border in Ireland, invisible or not, will be disastrous for our economy. Any border will have the most serious consequences for agriculture and small business. I believe the Taoiseach should have held firm on his earlier commitments and argued strongly against any border in Ireland. Make no mistake, he will have to argue that case very strongly with the Tory Government.

I have no doubt Prime Minister May was delighted to see the Taoiseach, as Head of Government, make a U-turn, as she may have interpreted it, on this issue. I believe that, on Monday, the Taoiseach failed the first test on his first outing and, in so doing, potentially undermined efforts to protect Ireland, North and South, from the effects of Brexit. It is vital that he does not repeat his "invisible border" comments at this week's European Council meeting. I do not think any dodgy films have been made in the Council offices in the Europa building so, hopefully, there will not be any cinematic commentary on this occasion. The Taoiseach must forcefully fight for Ireland's interests. He must inform his European counterparts that should the North be forcibly removed from the EU against the democratically expressed wishes of the people, this will have a devastating impact on nearly every aspect of life, North and South. Sinn Féin has put forward a range of measures which we believe the Government should pursue in order to mitigate the impact of Brexit, and these types of mitigations must be put on the table.

I wish the Taoiseach well. This will be his first European Council meeting and we will be watching closely. As we know, there is an appreciation at EU level of the unique challenges that Brexit poses for us here in Ireland. The job is to harness that and to represent all of the people of Ireland. The Taoiseach's remit and responsibilities stretch to the entire island of Ireland. His responsibilities do not stop at the Border - they do not stop at Newry. I ask the Taoiseach to ditch the "invisible border" line and focus on ensuring that special status for the North inside the EU is secured so that no border will be placed on this island, because no border is acceptable.

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