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

I thank the Deputy very much. He will appreciate that this is still an evolving situation and it would be unwise and undiplomatic of me to answer his question as fully as I might like to in this Chamber, given that many people are paying attention to what we say here, and not just in this country.

Regarding last Monday, if the Deputy checks the record, he will see that I actually said nothing at all all day. I maintained a studied silence throughout Monday. The press conference, which I had arranged for 2.30 p.m. Irish time and choreographed for 3.30 p.m. Brussels time after the lunch was supposed to finish, was deferred precisely for that reason. I only spoke that evening after things had gone awry in Brussels.

I was in Enniskillen for the entire day, as the Deputy knows, on 11 or 12 November attending the events there, visiting the local hospital, speaking at the Royal British Legion and also having a bilateral meeting with Ms Foster, where we discussed, of course, all of these matters and the future.

It is important, though, to remind the House that this is a structured negotiation. We are not negotiating with a political party in the North, in Britain or anywhere else. This is a structured negotiation - on the one side the EU task force, led by Mr. Michel Barnier and into which we have a very strong input, and, on the other side, the UK Government. This is how this will be concluded. We are in a much stronger position being part of the European negotiating team and being represented by the task force as a Union of 27 countries and 440 million people negotiating with the UK than we would be in some sort of trilateral negotiation involving the Irish Government, the British Government and one of the parties in Northern Ireland. We are not going to do that. We are going to continue to negotiate as we have been up until now.

It is important to bear one thing in mind. I would like to quote something said in the House of Commons yesterday by a British MP or, rather, an MP from Northern Ireland who is British, Lady Sylvia Hermon, who is a unionist MP from North Down.

She stated:

Although I readily accept that there are 10 duly elected DUP Members in this House, nevertheless the DUP does not speak for or represent all the people of Northern Ireland. Will the Secretary of State therefore take a few moments to explain to the House, and particularly all of the people of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, the benefits to the whole country of the proposals the Prime Minister took to Brussels yesterday?

We should remember that there are many voices in Northern Ireland. Even some unionist voices are very much behind the proposals taken to Brussels in recent days. We need to listen to all voices and parties in Northern Ireland, not just one.

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