Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I am sure the Taoiseach is aware, yesterday four of the party leaders in the North - Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin, Colum Eastwood of the SDLP, Naomi Long of the Alliance Party and Stephen Agnew of the Green Party - issued a statement recognising that the North should remain in the Single Market and the customs union. That was agreed by all four.

Over the weekend and in recent days there has been a flurry of senior British Tory politicians not only commenting on what would happen with North-South issues and the island of Ireland, but also visiting the North. In particular, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mrs. Bradley, is apparently testing how maximum facilitation, or max fac, can be made to work and whether it can be made to work for Northern Ireland. I welcome that the Taoiseach was very clear last week that he was standing by the backstop and that max fac was very unlikely to offer anything much in the case of Northern Ireland or indeed the island of Ireland. We also had statements from and visits by people such as the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis, and the UK Business Secretary, who are also exploring the technological solution for the Border.

Obviously, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade would have considerable detailed contact, particularly with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, but also with other line Ministers. Are they really getting the Government's message to the effect that as far as people are concerned-----

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