Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take six and a half minutes.

I welcome the Minister to the House. To be clear, he has been anything but silent, feeble or weak on this issue, and nor have the Government, Opposition parties in the House and our colleagues in the EU. Each and every one of those colleagues backs what we are saying, namely, that Britain must abide by the agreement it signed. The EU unambiguously and with total clarity fully supports this Government and the people on this island in their wish for peace and in their consent to the future relationship that we must have between North and South. This point must be made, notwithstanding what my colleague, Deputy Tóibín, said. The relationship between the EU and Britain is now sundered. As such, it is important that no matter what else happens, we ensure that Brexit, which will happen and we cannot change, is as soft as possible.

To measure the significance and influence of the Irish Government and our civil servants, one need have done no more than listen to the former British ambassador to the United States of America on radio this morning when he said that Ireland had a punch far above its weight and had major influence in America. One of the presidential candidates, Vice President Joe Biden, and Ms Nancy Pelosi, who is a senior political leader in America, are clear that the withdrawal agreement is a fundamental issue and the protocol on Northern Ireland must remain sacrosanct in every event.

I have been appointed by the Government as Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. We have not met as yet, but we will do so next week. Along with my colleague, Deputy McHugh, I today participated in a discussion on Zoom with Lord Kinnoull, Chairman of the EU committee of the House of Lords. We made clear our views, which represented the views of every Deputy, about what was happening. Nevertheless, we listened to what Lord Kinnoull had to say. We fully support the idea that he put to us, namely, that there should be much more communication between Members of the Dáil and Members of the British Houses of Parliament. The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA, has been of considerable importance in the past and will have increasing significance in future. Although it will be for our committee to decide, we might communicate regularly.

One thing the Covid crisis has done is give us the capacity to meet people from distant shores as well as not so far away more frequently on the Internet. That is exactly what we will do so as to put forth the views and strong opinions of Members of the Oireachtas, including the view that the new relationship - there will be one regardless as a result of Brexit - between Britain and Ireland and between Northern Ireland and the South will require us to put a great deal more thought into what will happen in future.

The British Government is in no doubt whatsoever of our strongly held and immovable views on the Northern Ireland protocol. There is no other way - there can be no diminution and there will be none as far as we are concerned. The British Government must think again. The British Parliament has every right to legislate for what happens therein, but it cannot break an international agreement willy-nilly. It cannot decide to throw up a red flag against something to which it has already signed. The UK's international reputation is at stake, not just with Europe or America, but with other countries that it hopes to have business relationships with in future. I speak in particular of China and other major blocs.

This debate will clearly point out to the UK and its Government exactly where we all stand on this matter. We will have no truck with the breaking of the protocol. No one on this island wants to go back to the way things were. We do not want to go back to the violence, the sadness and the awful 30 years of murder and mayhem on this island, North and South. We do not want customs or Border posts on our island between North and South. We do not want to see the appalling vista of commercial relationships between companies, large and small, on our two islands breaking down. We have important personal relationships with the UK outside of our business and political relationships. We do not want to see them sundered or changed in any way. The British Government must change its proposals on the protocol and uphold in full everything contained in the Good Friday Agreement.

Like my colleague, Deputy Fitzpatrick, I am a Border Deputy and I want to see the peace that was restored to County Louth and elsewhere along the Border continue. The benefits of the Good Friday Agreement, for example, co-operation in education and so on, must continue. There is only one way forward on this island and that is with all of us working together.

See this speech in context