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

I agree that the absence of an Executive in Northern Ireland has been very unhelpful in the past year when we have been trying to secure a good agreement for Ireland and Northern Ireland. Before the Executive was collapsed there was an outline letter written by First Minister Foster and deputy First Minister McGuinness which set out principles which are not very different to what was agreed yesterday in Brussels, and had the Executive remained in place it would have been possible to have a united cross-community elected voice for Northern Ireland, which is not what we have had in the past year. People could be mistaken for thinking that one party spoke for all of Northern Ireland. In fact, only the Executive elected and constituted under the Good Friday Agreement can speak legitimately for all of Northern Ireland.

I agree with Deputy Martin's assessment. Perhaps if the Northern Ireland Assembly was meeting today it might even pass a resolution in favour of what was agreed, as a majority of the people elected to that Assembly wanted to remain and the majority of the parties, including the Alliance Party, the Green Party, the SDLP and others, want to stay in the Internal Market and the customs union but, unfortunately, we have to deal with the situation as we find it. I know the days, weeks and months that were spent trying to get the Executive up and running and to get the Assembly going. I know the enormous work the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, has done in that regard and also the previous Minister, Deputy Flanagan, prior to that. We have done everything possible to get the Executive and Assembly up and running while at the same time trying to handle Brexit negotiations. We will continue to do that.

In terms of outreach to the unionist community and Northern parties, that will continue. As Deputy Martin is aware, not too long ago I spent an entire day in Enniskillen doing exactly that and that will continue. All members of the Government will continue our outreach to Northern Ireland and our business to Northern Ireland. The negotiations are taking place between a sovereign Government, namely, the United Kingdom on the one hand, and the European Union, of which we are part on the other. These are not negotiations involving one or any political party. This agreement, if we come to it, will be made between the UK Government on the one side and Europe and Ireland on the other. It will not involve one political party to the exclusion of others. That would not be right.

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