Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with the Good Friday Agreement in the next question. Deputy McDonald put forward the idea, I am sure the Taoiseach will agree with me, that the SNP is not very relevant to the debate in Westminster in a number of ways. For example, if the SNP were to vote in favour of the withdrawal agreement or aspects of it, it would pass by a wide margin. SNP Members have been involved in all the talks with the British Government - I have met them. However, nobody from the assembly or Executive in the North has been in talks as a government with the British Government on the issues relating to Brexit. How can there be regulatory alignment with the Single Market without the Executive and the assembly up and running?

As I have said for the past two years, if people do not want to take their seats in Westminster they should not stand for election and allow people who would take their seats to stand and give Northern Ireland representation on a crucial issue. This is existential in some respects economically for the entire island if the wrong call is made by the Westminster Parliament. I do not want to predict too far into the future - there could be an Article 50 extension and so on. The stakes are very high for ordinary people and their jobs in sectors from agrifood to business. Civil society has not been represented adequately. While some anti-Brexit groups have been coming, they have been reduced to deputations to Brussels, Dublin and elsewhere. The alternative was executive function and representation as per the Executive and parliamentarian representation as per the assembly, and likewise in Westminster on probably the greatest economic issue to have faced the country in 40 years.

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