Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The meeting in Guernsey was held up by the Tánaiste in particular, as, possibly, a game-changer or a major meeting in the context of the continued vacuum around the Northern Ireland Executive, yet the British Prime Minister did not turn up to it. The strength of the British-Irish Council, BIC, over the years has been full participation and full sharing of information around the table among all the taoisigh and prime ministers on the island. What plans does the Taoiseach have to reinvigorate the BIC? While I accept that the focus of London right now is on Brexit, urgency needs to be injected into addressing the vacuum in the Northern Ireland Executive. With respect to Deputy McDonald, she is not necessarily an impartial observer either because her party is part of the problem and it needs to come forward with solutions to address the vacuum otherwise we will return to the situation we had.

In the context of Brexit, what is the Taoiseach's reaction to the speech delivered this afternoon by Sir Keir Starmer in which he said that the Labour Party would be unlikely to vote for any deal in the UK Parliament, if such a deal is arrived at, once again throwing huge uncertainty into the Brexit process?

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