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

The much-awaited European Union summit and European Council meetings last week ended in political and diplomatic failure for Ireland. This was to be a defining moment when we would see delivery on the commitments made to Ireland in December of last year, commitments that the Taoiseach told us at the time were cast iron. Despite this, he returns to Ireland after the summit with no progress, no certainty and no legal clarity. Since December, the British Government has ignored every deadline. It has acted in bad faith and its actions in bad faith are its responsibility and it is accountable for it, not the Taoiseach. That is the point I made so I hope that Deputy Micheál Martin can absorb that simple concept of accountability resting with the British for their own intransigence.

The Taoiseach, however, has accepted this bad faith and he has not sufficiently challenged it. His approach and that of the other European Union leaders has emboldened the Tory party and their fantasy Brexit. A lot of the excuse-making about the chaos which Mrs. May faces simply feeds and verifies all of that because they now believe that they are involved in a game of chicken with the rights and interests of Ireland. We cannot stop Britain from leaving or prevent it from crashing out of the European Union through bluster, whether that is by accident or by design, but what the Irish Government can and must do is ensure that Irish interests are protected, that the rights of citizens are safeguarded and that our international peace agreements are enforced. The Irish Government must make clear that it will not allow the British to impose a hard border or to walk away from the internationally binding Good Friday Agreement. The Taoiseach needs to stop rowing back from his own deadlines and he needs now to deliver on what he described as cast-iron guarantees. There should be no further negotiation on future relations until the British Government delivers on that agreement from last December. The Irish Government and our European Union partners must now develop a contingency plan to safeguard Ireland's interests, the rights of citizens and our peace agreements in the event of the British Government refusing to live up to its obligations.

We are now sailing in very dangerous waters and our navigation system seems rather scrambled. The approach of the Irish Government has become muddled and lacks the precision needed in these negotiations. It also lacks the steel necessary to influence and inform the wider direction of the European Union strategy in an effective manner. The position of "Ireland first", much trumpeted by European Union leaders and by this Government, now seems like empty words, rhetoric aimed more at keeping Irish public opinion on side than a genuine negotiating doctrine to be utilised in dealing with the Tories. The failure to follow through on the promise of "Ireland first" means that the Rees-Mogg fantasy of a destructive game of chicken between the European Union and the British Government now edges ever closer to a reality.

Tory playacting has been accepted and the Tory strategy of playing for time has been tolerated. This is to the detriment of Ireland and our national interests. It has resulted in stagnation, wishful thinking and a refusal by the Government to recognise the nature of the British Government's Brexit agenda as regards our island. It is simply unthinkable that this should remain the condition of the Government's approach during the summer months.

We need to see a radical change of tack. We need a lot more plain speaking and the application of common sense when it comes to engaging with the Tories. First, Theresa May needs to be called out directly for the game-playing and stalling for time on the part of her government and this needs to be done publicly, privately and repeatedly. There will be no progress made if the British Prime Minister believes, even in a deluded way, that the Tory approach is working. Make no mistake, right now back in London the British negotiators feel they have what they wanted, that is, the can kicked firmly down the road until October. They have achieved this without delivering any legal guarantees or workable proposals on the Irish question and they have been allowed to dodge the political agreement made last December. They have been allowed to dodge making binding commitments as regards the backstop outlined in that agreement and their obligations to set out how a hard border will be avoided, the Good Friday Agreement upheld and the rights of citizens protected. How can we accept the Ireland first position as genuine when the British have been let off the hook on so many important issues? The Government must outline how it intends to ensure these matters are addressed during the summer. What engagement does the Taoiseach intend to have with the European Union? I understand he intends to make a tour of EU capitals and, unlike Deputy Micheál Martin, I believe that is a wise thing to do. What will be the substance of that and of the engagement between the European side and the British in coming weeks?

Waiting until the autumn runs a major risk of Ireland's concerns being rolled into the wider new relationship between the EU and Britain. This would be calamitous for Ireland. We cannot simply wait until the 11th hour, put on our crash helmets, close our eyes and hope for the best. That is not a strategy. To rebuild the confidence of the Irish public in the position of Ireland first, we need to see progress, clarity and legal assurances from the British Government and we need to see that happen now.

It is clear that we need a Brexit summit focused solely on Irish concerns prior to the October meeting, not a conversation about Brexit over breakfast. This is something that the Taoiseach must put forcefully to our European partners. The backstop agreed in December - signed, sealed, delivered and enforceable - is the bottom line and the very minimum needed to protect our island, jobs and economic progress. We also need to see recognition from the Tories that the people of the North voted to remain, not to exit.

Given how the negotiations have gone to this point, it is clear the British Government cannot grasp the importance of these issues to Ireland. It either cannot grasp it or it does not care but, either way, the result is the same. If the British Government refuses to do the right thing by Ireland, refuses to produce credible proposals and continues along a path that will only deliver economic devastation and political upheaval on this island, then those decisions should be taken out of its hands and placed in the hands of the people of this island. In the event of a Brexit crash, a disorderly Brexit or a hard Brexit, to which the Tories seem wedded, the British must not imagine that the Irish people will simply sigh and resign themselves to their fate. Mrs. May and her Government need to understand that, in the event of a crash, a chaotic or a hard Brexit, they will have no democratic alternative other than to put the constitutional question on the issue of ending partition and Irish reunification. A shared, agreed, new Ireland is by far a better vision for all the people of this island than the destruction the Tories seem intent on. As somebody who is committed to Irish unity, this is not the scenario in which I would wish a debate on reunification to occur; far from it. However, if it is the case that we are left with that mess, Mrs. May needs to understand that the question, democratically, will have to be put.

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