Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate everybody who has been elected to the new Westminster Parliament. In particular, I congratulate Mr. Colum Eastwood and Ms Claire Hanna of the SDLP and Mr. Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party. They will now represent three Irish voices in the new House of Commons. More than ever, it will be critical for all-island voices to be available in the very difficult negotiations that will be under way.

I have never agreed with Sinn Féin's abstentionist policy. Over and over, I have heard from many in the North that when it needed voices in the UK Parliament, the abstentionist policy meant a whole stream of Irish opinion was not available to be heard. This left the gate open for extreme groups such as the European Research Group to peddle the kind of vision of Brexit it has been offering. The electorate in Northern Ireland delivered a very loud message to all the parties there. I hope the talks will be successful. Pre-Christmas talks have a history of some success in the North. I hope this will be the case again this time. I believe the issues around language can be addressed in good faith among the parties, in addition to issues concerning the sectarian conflict that have yet to be resolved and the issue of legislation being blocked by any of the parties in Stormont. All of these issues are fixable to the credit and benefit of people in the North but also the whole island of Ireland.

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