Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is correct to be gravely concerned. It is astonishing that a Minister of any government, in any part of the world, would attend before the parliament of that country and state that it is the intention of that government to break the law. What we need to learn, however, is that if we appease lawlessness we will end up only encouraging the lawbreaker.

It is absolutely imperative that the EU is straight in dealing with this issue. We should not tolerate any attempts by the British Government to break the law. The provisions in Article 12 of the protocol set out what should happen for the purpose of implementation and what arises when there is a breach. However, everyone involved in drafting and executing that agreement presumed that there would be no breaches prior to the conclusion of the trade deal between the EU and the UK. If it is the case that the UK Government goes ahead and publishes legislation that breaks international law, we should break off the talks and the Minister should tell the EU that we should do that. As I said previously, appeasing lawlessness only encourages the law-breaker.

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