Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Prime Ministers meet in Council, I am sure one of the things they will be talking and thinking about, particularly as they debate migration, is the results of the elections that took place in Europe this week, in Bavaria in Germany, Brussels in Belgium and Luxembourg. Each was a historic vote. There was an incredible surge in the vote for the Green Party across Europe. It was a vote for an alternative to the far right, the positive message of politics for the future which has answers to the questions not just of how we might manage migration but also how we might give our young people a home, how we might provide our public services and how we might tackle climate change. It is incredible, looking at the figures, how we did in Munich, Brussels and Luxembourg. It gives a real sense of hope and we will have a lot of influence on what is discussed at that Council meeting. The Taoiseach should be aware of what is going on in the rest of Europe.

I want to concentrate primarily on the issue of Brexit because it cannot be ignored. We are at an incredibly difficult, historic point and we have to be really considered and careful in what we do here now. I watched yesterday's debate in the British House of Commons when the British Prime Minister answered questions. I read with interest today the breaking news, coming out of the wires as we speak, that her Cabinet meeting has ended with neither division nor decision and with no real further clarity on what is their position. That holding position has been in existence for two years and is the centre of the problem that we face. They do not seem to know what they want. It was fascinating to watch the Conservative backbenchers on television yesterday in the House of Commons - the number of times I saw heads nodding or disapproving of what members of their own party were saying. They are deeply divided and that brings real instability and uncertainty to the whole process of the Brexit negotiations.

I think we are right to insist, as the Taoiseach said in his own speech, that we want an unlimited, not time-dated backstop guarantee should this whole process go wrong. It is interesting that the Tory Ministers coming out of their Cabinet meeting seemed to be fixating on that as the issue of the day. They are saying there cannot be a backstop indefinitely and that we need to define how it would end. I am not too sure why they see that as the pre-eminent, most important issue in the negotiations. My sense from a distance is that in recent weeks, had the Tories chosen to have seen it this way, some ground was yielded by Brussels in conceding the concept of some customs arrangement which would apply, admittedly on an interim basis, after the withdrawal agreement. Europe in a sense ceded somewhat to the ability of the UK economy to maintain trading relationships and to have to follow regulatory standards, obviously. They applied what was originally to go to Northern Ireland across the rest of the UK. Some people might say it is "pretend and extend", it is kicking the can down the road, but it seems even from reading about the negotiations from a distance that it was close to a deal being agreed, albeit a deal which puts off the real truth that it will not be possible for the UK to get some sort of magical trade deal with the rest of the world and still maintain easy trade relationships with the EU. I was surprised by how close we seemed to be. Why is it that the Border backstop, which all sides including the DUP agreed was going to be needed to avoid a hard border, has become, as Donald Tusk put it today, the Gordian knot within which this whole process has become stuck?

I think we have to be careful. We have to remain united in this Dáil. We have pretty much remained so on this issue for the past two years. It gives us strength. We certainly will be working with our European Green Party colleagues. I will be meeting some of them at the weekend to advocate for continued solidarity and support from the Union on the necessity of a backstop and of recognising the Good Friday Agreement. That has given us real strength. There is real risk that with the uncertainty of the UK system there may now be a crash-out, no-deal Brexit. That would be disastrous for this country as well as for the UK but I do not think we should be intimidated to ceding the necessity for maintaining as far as possible a borderless island in Ireland. On the solutions that seem to be coming from Mr. Barnier whereby in any future backstop arrangement there would be regulatory checks, not necessarily a border in the Irish Sea but something very similar to what already exists in agriculture produce and so on, there is already regulatory divergence because of the fact that we live on an island in terms of our Common Agricultural Policy and common energy market; there is a whole range of examples where such regulatory difference or divergence already exists. I do not think we should be intimidated out of maintaining some of that or the ability to have a backstop which guarantees further regulatory divergence to maintain an island that is not divided by a hard border.

I am maintaining close contact with my own Green Party colleagues. Steven Agnew, MLA, in Northern Ireland and Caroline Lucas, MP, in Westminster have been clear in their call for a people's vote on whatever happens next.

It looks like it is about to get very messy in the UK. I do not know exactly how a people's vote would work and how it could fit into possible election politics. It is up to them to decide. We very much give it our support.

Stephen Agnew, MLA, was in Brussels to meet Michel Barnier along with other party representatives. I make a suggestion which might add to what is an incredibly complex process but which may be useful. I understand that the European Union is willing to stand by the Good Friday Agreement and willing to recognise that citizens in Northern Ireland who may avail of Irish identity and Irish passports will be fully entitled to the various freedoms the European Union provides in travel, healthcare, access to Erasmus and other programmes. I understand that favourable status, as it were, may not apply for those who self-identify as British in Northern Ireland and carry a UK passport.

I am glad that Arlene Foster, MLA, was in Dublin yesterday to meet the Taoiseach. We need to maintain good relationships on the island irrespective of what happens in the coming weeks and months. In trying to break down the impasse, we should support some of those sorts of initiatives where we stand up for the rights of those who hold a British passport in Northern Ireland as well as those who might want to hold an Irish one. It is just one example of how we can box clever in standing by the principle of maintaining a frictionless border on the island of Ireland while at the same time recognising that there are two communities in the North and that we can ensure this works in a way that does not divide us unnecessarily.

We will need to wait and see. Obviously next week's Council meeting will not decide the issue. How far can it run before the process completely runs out of road? I do not know. No one knows. Certainly the Taoiseach has the support of my party and that of the European Green Party in the approach that is being taken. That has helped us to hold a line in very difficult circumstances. I look forward to hearing the outcome of the Council meeting so that we can consider further what our strategy should be.

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