Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach will recognise, as I do, that the rhetoric has changed for the worst substantially since last December and that the commitment made initially to no hard border and to protecting the agreement in all its parts has come unstuck because the reality is that members of the Tory Government are openly speculating that the agreement is past its sell-by date and that a hard border is not only necessary but, indeed, desirable to achieve the kind of Brexit they require. It would be remiss of us, and it would be remiss of the Taoiseach as Head of Government, to miss those clear soundings.

The best methodology to provide a backstop to protect the island as a whole and to protect the agreement is the convening of the intergovernmental conference. The Taoiseach has stalled on his response to that. In the absence of that, how does the Taoiseach propose to engage the British Government and the British system to ensure we get back to a position of unanimity regarding no border at all on the island of Ireland, and respect and protection for the agreement?

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