Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and get the Executive up and running. They should have the assembly meeting, which would thereby allow us to meet Ministers from Northern Ireland, as we did in the past, at the North-South Ministerial Council. They should allow Northern Ireland to have a voice and a say when it comes to Brexit through the Joint Ministerial Council and they should allow a First Minister and Deputy First Minister to attend the British-Irish Council in Jersey next month. I will be attending with the Scottish and Welsh First Ministers but, once again, Northern Ireland will be unrepresented and absent.

What Sinn Féin seems to be doing - Deputy Adams is doing it today and perhaps was trying to do it last week as well - is setting the scene to ensure that somebody else gets the blame for the failure to come to an agreement in Northern Ireland.

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