Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, Boris Johnson presented the so-called workable alternative to the backstop. The reality dawning on most people is that it amounts to little more than a set of dangerous and reckless propositions that play loose and fast with the Good Friday Agreement. Many people living in my constituency and elsewhere in the Border region stretching from Cavan to Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal and who have benefitted greatly from the Good Friday Agreement are very concerned at the prospect of a hard border being put in place. North or South, we do not want a hard border on the island. The all-island economy is under threat and needs to be protected and the Good Friday Agreement must be defended. As far as we can see, what is on the table does none of these things. That is the reality.

There is cross-party support in the Oireachtas and, except for the DUP, a cross-community consensus generally on the island in respect of most of these issues. That was well presented yesterday evening when Manufacturing Northern Ireland, an organisation that represents many businesses in the North, stated:

For us, it's moving from the best of both worlds to the worst of all worlds. Only logical conclusion from this ... is that the UK deliberately wants this offer to be rejected. It's simply an exercise at shifting blame.

The Tánaiste will agree that this is an assessment that many of us did not want to say so quickly, but it is the reality. It is probably a sound assessment. While I accept that the EU and Irish Government did not want to rule the proposals from the British Government out straight away, a sense of reality must be brought to bear. What Boris Johnson has presented is unworkable in its present form. That needs to be said now. It entails time-limited arrangements and provides for a DUP veto. The DUP will exercise that veto because it has always exercised vetoes in the past, which has created many problems.

It is ironic that the British Government has cloaked all this in the language of the democratic consent around the Assembly in the North without recognising that no part of Ireland has consented to Brexit. The people of the North voted to remain. That cannot be said often or hard enough. It is the reality. The proposal to give the Assembly the power to decide the types of arrangement to be put in place and how long they will last will give the DUP a veto. Abusing the petition of concern has caused many problems in the past. The DUP has used the petition of concern to flout every positive and progressive programme of Government that has come before the Assembly in the past ten years. We must recognise that what has been proposed is unacceptable and an abuse of the Good Friday Agreement. Any arrangement that can be voted on, vetoed, blocked or stalled by the DUP is a non-runner for Sinn Féin. Will the Tánaiste dismiss this element of the proposal and make it clear that it needs to be taken off the table and that the proposals, as constituted currently, are not workable?

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