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

It was a real humbling experience to attend in Enniskillen a few weeks ago. I had been there before but not to attend Remembrance Sunday. When one stands there on a very cold day and sees people gathering around the cenotaph to mourn the dead in two wars, one can only imagine in one's mind's eye what it must have been like when people suddenly experienced a bomb going off and all of the horror and carnage that must have gone with it. I was only eight years old when the bombing happened, but I remember it well. Gordon Wilson is one of my memories of the Troubles for the way he showed such extraordinary leadership to us all by responding to such an atrocity with forgiveness. I am really proud that he subsequently became a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

I also had the opportunity to meet a person who had kept one of the wreaths from the day, a wreath that had been partially damaged by the bomb and which was going to a museum. I met one man and his wife who had had to have 44 operations in the past 30 years as a consequence of the bombing. I am conscious that the next day the UDA carried out a revenge attack in which one person died and 60 others were injured. I do not think it is inappropriate to use this opportunity to encourage the incoming leader of Sinn Féin to agree with me that the men who planted the bomb were no heroes and should be condemned and brought to justice. I invite the deputy leader of Sinn Féin to take the opportunity in this House, given that questions have been tabled by others, not by me, to say that.

I spent most of the day with Ms Arlene Foster, not one to one but with lots of others, at the cenotaph, the church service, the cathedral and the British legion. At her invitation, I then visited South West Acute Hospital where I had the opportunity to meet other public representatives, including the local MP Ms Michelle Gildernew and MLAs from different parties. It is a fabulous new hospital in Enniskillen, but, if anything, it is underused. We discussed ways by which we might enable more patients from counties Donegal and Sligo to use its facilities to help us to deal with our capacity shortcomings.

We also had a one to one meeting and the topics of conversation were principally the ongoing efforts to get power-sharing back up and running in Northern Ireland and Brexit. Ms Foster always says she wants to have a sensible Brexit. She is certainly open to the idea of a new customs arrangement or partnership between the United Kingdom and the European Union as one of the mechanisms that might allow us to continue to trade more or less as we do now, at least when it comes to merchandise. It would, of course, cover the whole of the United Kingdom, not just Northern Ireland. It is not hugely dissimilar to the proposal recently put forward by the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce, which has a lot of merit. However, for the United Kingdom to enter into any meaningful new customs partnership or customs union arrangement with the European Union, it would not be possible for it to then negotiate bilateral trade deals with third countries. We remain unable to square this circle. It is still the desire of the British Government to be able to trade freely with the European Union as though the United Kingdom were still in the customs union but also to conclude deals with third countries, However, that is just not possible.

It is important that, when we talk about special arrangements and measures for Northern Ireland, we reassure the unionist parties in the North that we do not want to undermine the union in so doing.

We respect the Good Friday Agreement and that Northern Ireland remains in the United Kingdom until the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise. It is important that we reassure the unionist parties there that any efforts we try or any measures we propose in relation to the Border with Northern Ireland are not about changing the constitutional status of Northern Ireland but about ensuring ordinary people, businesses and farmers can go about their lives as they have for the past 20 years. We are much more likely to have them as advocates for the type of solution we want if we do not put them in a position where they feel threatened about Brexit undermining the union.

We also need to recognise that one of the things they do not want is to disrupt the trading relationship between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. What she would say to me is the main single market Northern Ireland wants to stay in is the United Kingdom single market, and the main customs union it wants to stay in is the customs union of the UK, and it does not want anything that would diminish this. Of course, the counterpoint I would always make is the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted the other way, to remain in the European Union. The level of understanding and the commonality in position may be closer than some of the rhetoric I have heard in the last couple of weeks.

The issue of the Statute of Limitations came up last week. We do not agree with it. We very much disagree with the proposal and we have informed the British Government of our opposition to it.

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