Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

That may be the case but this has to be an Irish objective with regard to a deal.

I want now to focus on the North-South element of Brexit. I have been campaigning on the objective of Irish unity for the last 30 years. Aontú was formed 20 months ago. One of its pillar objectives is the creation of a 32 county Irish republic. That objective is not a pipe dream or a romantic idea. In practical terms, the island of Ireland functions a lot better as a unit than it does as a partitioned space. It is clear to me that as a result of Brexit and Covid-19, many people who were not pro-unity in the past share that ground with us now. They favour the idea of Irish unity. It amazes me that 100 years after the War of Independence, which we are celebrating, the self-determination of the people of the North and our ability to function in this State, to do business here and to move people North and South on the island of Ireland are still determined by a Tory Government in London, which cares nothing about this country and knows nothing about it. It needs to be understood by the Dáil that partition is an exposure in our national interest. It is a weakness. The longer we leave it as the elephant in the room, without discussing and working on it, the longer that weakness and exposure will remain. The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and I are from County Meath. The following may have some resonance for Deputy Byrne as a Meath man. One hundred years ago, the late Liam Mellows, a Teachta Dála for County Meath and an Irish revolutionary, said that if the island of Ireland was partitioned, there would grow two establishments on both sides of the Border which would then depend on the Border for their own existence. That has happened. In this State, we have Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which are regional political parties.

If we had an all-Ireland parliament, their support base would be radically smaller and, therefore, they would be politically weaker, have less influence and be less likely to make it into government. Unity is actually a threat to the self-interest of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. That is one of the major reasons the Taoiseach still refuses to talk about the necessity of planning for Irish unity. Even though much of the rest of the island of Ireland is on board in the context of the logic behind it, there still is a resistance in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, for their own party-political interests, to going down that route.

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