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

What we saw in the past, during times of economic growth and times of boom, was that Governments fuelled that and cut taxes and increased spending at unsustainable levels and when we ended up in a financial crisis, there was no headroom and no money and austerity was imposed on people. We will make sure that does not happen no matter what happens with Brexit and because we have managed the public finances prudently in recent years, we can afford to run a small deficit for the next couple of years if we have to. That means we will not have a return to recession or to austerity measures in the event of a no-deal hard Brexit. However, it means that we will not be able to deliver the levels of increased spending that we might have wished to have done, or that we still intend to do should we able to secure a deal.

On the Good Friday Agreement and a Border poll, we all know what the Good Friday Agreement says. It enshrines the principle of consent, that Northern Ireland will remain part of the United Kingdom until such a time as the majority of people in Northern Ireland wish it to be otherwise or wish for unity to happen. The judgment call is to be made by the UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as to when those conditions exist. My judgment, which I know is shared by many in this House, is that mixing the issue of Irish unity with trying to secure a deal on Brexit is unwise. Some of the unionist voices who have been opposed to a deal on Brexit are concerned that some Members of this House or some political forces may be trying to exploit Brexit to bring about Irish unity. That is not the Government's agenda, that is not what we are doing at all and we do not want to threaten anyone's loyalty or identity. We want to deliver an agreement that avoids a hard border, that gives us a transition period and that secures free trade between Britain and Ireland. The issue of Irish unity at some point in the future is a separate one and should be dealt with at some point in the future and not mixed up in these Brexit negotiations.

See this speech in context