Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach referred to full restoration of the institutions in line with the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. That may rhetorically be the Taoiseach's position, but it is not his position politically. Week on week, he amplifies that reality when he takes to his feet in this House. I am not going to waste the time that I have on tit-for-tat politics.

Brexit has thrown up a whole myriad of legislative and logistical issues, one of which is future EU representation in the European Parliament for citizens in the North, whom the Taoiseach cares deeply about. Sinn Féin and others have pressed to ensure citizens in the North are afforded a means of maintaining representation in the parliament, whether through the allocation of seats to the North, the two additional seats that were afforded to this State, or indeed by extension of the franchise. I see a report in The Irish Timesyesterday which states that an internal Government note has been prepared on this matter and it would appear that these suggestions have been dismissed. If that is true, I think it is regrettable. In fact, it does not chime at all with the Taoiseach's pledge that no one in the North would ever again be left behind. Is there such a note? Does it dismiss these propositions? Has it been accepted by Government and will the Taoiseach publish it?

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