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

First, I strongly and warmly welcome the statement by the four parties in Northern Ireland - the Alliance Party, the SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Green Party - expressing their view that they want Northern Ireland to stay within the structures of the Single Market and the customs union, and presumably to remain part of the European Economic Area. I am conscious of the fact that, when we add those parties together, they make up the majority of people elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, so I think it is a very significant statement and a very welcome one from those four parties.

I have also seen the Queen's University Belfast opinion poll, which very clearly indicates what the people of Northern Ireland want, what their wishes are and what they would like to consent to. It shows well over 60% of people in Northern Ireland still wanting to remain in the European Union and very much the majority of people from both communities - the Catholic and nationalist community and the Protestant and unionist community - expressing their strong view that they want to remain within the European Union, the Single Market and the customs union. I really hope and trust that the UK Government will take into account the wishes of people in Northern Ireland over the next couple of months.

There is a lot of ongoing contact, as Deputies would expect. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Minister for the Cabinet Office, David Lidington. I met Prime Minister May just last week. Once again, I want to say that the Government and I, as Taoiseach, stand by the political agreement that was made in December and we expect it to be honoured in full by the UK Government. We also stand by and continue to support the text of the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Ireland-Ireland protocol, which was published in March. The task force and the other 27 member states absolutely stand by that as well. I look forward to welcoming the Prime Minister of Belgium, who will be visiting this week, and I will talk to him a little more about that. At least until such time as somebody puts forward an alternative that is as good as, or better than, the backstop, we will be insisting that it be part of the withdrawal agreement and there can be no withdrawal agreement without us being satisfied that that is the case.

In regard to efforts to assist the parties in Northern Ireland to re-establish the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement, that work is ongoing. Prime Minister May and I discussed that in Sofia and, again, the Tánaiste is working with Secretary of State Bradley and David Lidington, on what we can do, as Governments, to encourage the DUP and Sinn Féin to set aside their differences. Rhetoric is cheap, compromise is not. Deputy Micheál Martin is correct that the best thing that Sinn Féin and all the parties that have representation in Northern Ireland can do now is to get the Assembly up and running and get the Executive functioning. What would be much stronger than a statement from the four parties would be a vote by the Assembly to say what was said in that statement but with the Assembly not meeting, it is not able to do that. This means people in Northern Ireland are at a disadvantage compared with people in Scotland, for example, where the Parliament is meeting and passing resolutions and where the Government in Scotland is speaking up for its people, with the authority of Government, not just one party.

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