Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin will support the Government's motion on the draft agreement because as Teachta McDonald has said, if this works it is probably the least worst Brexit. We do not support it because it is the best option. It is not the best option because, among other issues, it disregards and ignores the vote of the people in the North to remain in the European Union. Abiding by the will of the people would be the best option but that is an option which the Government failed to secure. It failed because it never pressed for it or accepted it, either in Deputy Enda Kenny's time or in Deputy Leo Varadkar's time as Taoiseach.

The Government will argue that it had to abide by the United Kingdom's vote. Mar dhea. I do not accept that. I am with Parnell, who said "No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation." At any time of big change, those special big moments of history, big imaginations are needed to determine how we proceed. There was an absence of this type of thinking within the Fianna Fáil leadership and the Government as they came to terms with what was happening as a consequence of the Brexit referendum.

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