Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I accept that the Taoiseach cannot answer the latter part of my question. I accept the import of what he said about having to conduct business in private to a certain extent. In my first question I referred to our relationship with the North. I agree with the Taoiseach that it is vital for us to maintain good relationships with the unionist community in the North which we have built in the past 20 years, as difficult as that is on a day-to-day basis. I would love to see the Assembly return to help that process, but we also need to play our part. I agree that we do not want to get into a trilateral debate in the talks. However, at some point the Taoiseach will have to pick up the telephone to talk to Arlene Foster. Does he have plans to do so? In recent days she seemed to indicate that the DUP had been completely outside the loop for five weeks and did not know what the text or structure was. Surely in Enniskillen or at other meetings we have had on an ongoing basis during that five-week period we broadly outlined the strategy and the backstop guarantees for which we were looking, but that is history. The key question is where we do go from here to try to restore good relations North and South. Whenever the Brexiteers sail off to a future on the Cayman Islands, we will be left together on this island and have to try to work, co-operate and build trust and relationships together. How does the Taoiseach think we can do that?

See this speech in context