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

If it is the case that Prime Minister May has refused to meet the four parties, I am disappointed to hear it. Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance Party and Green Party combined represent the majority of people in the Northern Ireland Assembly, or close to it. That meeting should happen. I will have that meeting, having also met the leader of the DUP recently.

I did not hear Secretary of State Bradley's comments in full or in context and I always like to hear things in full and in context before commenting on them. It is a statement of fact that the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted against Brexit and neither the Northern Ireland Assembly or Northern Ireland Executive has given consent for Brexit. We all know that and I make sure that every Prime Minister and President in Europe knows that as well and they do. It is essential that the secretary of state is impartial in dealing with the various parties in Northern Ireland and that is what the Good Friday Agreement requires of the sovereign UK Government.

Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to an obsession about protecting the integrity of the Single Market. It is important not to forget that is our Single Market too and we benefit from it enormously. Huge numbers of jobs in Ireland exist because we are part of a European Single Market. I would not like a situation where Britain is given unfettered access to this market, including Ireland, if it is going to reduce labour, environmental and health standards or use state aids and competition manipulations to undercut Ireland's businesses and take our jobs. That is what protecting the integrity of the Single Market is about. It is not an obsession; it is about protecting jobs, workers' rights, health and safety and the environment, and ensuring fair competition and no state aid. That is something Deputy Boyd Barrett would be in favour of, if not obsessed about.

Deputy Howlin asked a number of questions about the pace of negotiations.

In March and in June, we agreed that there would have to be a legally operative backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement in the form of a protocol and that that would have to apply unless and until a new agreement supersedes it. We need to bear in mind that this is language the UK Government signed up to. It is in the letter the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, sent to President Tusk. It is in the joint document produced by the UK and the EU back in June. This is, therefore, something that the UK has signed up to in principle and in writing. It is not just a matter of substance at this stage; it is also a matter of trust.

Ireland has no difficulty in hearing proposals for a transition extension. However, it is strange that I heard some suggestion from, I believe, the UK Secretary of State, Mr. Rabb, that we could have an extension of the transition period instead of a legally binding backstop. An extension of the transition period would be a concession to the UK because it would be asking for it, asking for more time to prepare to put Brexit into real effect. It would be asking for more time to negotiate a new relationship. It would be asking for more time to get that new relationship treaty ratified. This would be a concession to the UK. We certainly would not be exchanging anything in return for it. I thought that was a somewhat unusual trade-off to propose.

There is much excellent reporting on Brexit in the media. The long reports by RTÉ's Tony Connelly are really good and are a very good briefing for anyone who is following this topic. An awful lot of nonsense is also being written and I will not waste any time commenting on all the individual speculative stories that appear in the media on Brexit, particularly in the UK press.

Undoubtedly the prospects of an agreement are adversely affected by the current political situation in the UK. The UK is a very divided country. It is still roughly divided 50:50 between people who want to leave and people who want to remain. Even several years later, those who want to leave still do not know what leave means, which makes coming to an agreement very difficult. However, we are working towards that and I am confident we will do it.

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