Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

By any objective measure, this is an exceptionally serious moment for Northern Ireland, North-South relations and relations with the United Kingdom. The core building block of 20 years of progress is endangered and there remains a threat of new economic and social divisions. The breakdown three weeks ago was not an isolated event. It was the logical conclusion of practices over a lengthy period and the additional instability of the disastrous decision in an English-driven referendum. Given that we have been denied a full debate in recent weeks on the Brexit negotiations, I will address this issue later in my statement.

The specific issue which appears to have been the cause of the failure to agree to establish an executive is dramatically smaller than the long list of issues that have been overcome in the past. It is not in the same universe as getting agreement in place in the first place, getting the armed wings of political movements to decommission, establishing a police service with cross-community support, achieving the devolution of policing powers or the many other much more intractable problems. There is simply no way of avoiding the fact that the cycle of dysfunction and breakdown to which we have been pointing for years is the cause of the crisis and it is only when the underlying problems are addressed that will we be able to deal with it.

The draft agreement that was leaked to the media has not been confirmed by either Government and it is not sure that either Government actually has a full copy of it. It appears, however, to be a reasonable and balanced compromise. In it Sinn Féin completely reverses its position on the core issue it cited when collapsing the institutions.

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