John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The debate has been broadly good. It has been united, and that has certainly been my party's approach from the get-go. I concur with the comments from Deputy Howlin on some of the unfortunate scenes and developments during this debate. Let us not allow that to cloud the overall objective which was achieved. There is an opportunity to come back to what we have discussed. Our approach to Brexit has been good from the get-go, as I said.

There has been a united approach in trying to achieve the Irish protocol which thankfully became a common theme and demand across Europe.

Europe has been steadfast in its defence of the Good Friday Agreement and its protections for Ireland.

This legislation is very important. It is unlike the previous omnibus Bill, which was put in place in case we hit a cliff edge. We now face that, inevitably, at the end of the year. We have probably done as much as we can from a legislation perspective, but there is much more to be done. There have been some concerns and it is only appropriate that I voice them now. They are concerns from some of the leading human rights and equality organisations on the island, which are deeply concerned about the impact that Brexit is having on the protection of rights and equality provisions in the Good Friday Agreement, given that European law is critical for such supports. They have lobbied, as have others, to secure human rights protections in the EU-UK withdrawal agreement via the protocol, which guaranteed there would be no diminution of human rights as a result of Brexit.

Those groups believe, however, that there is still a threat to those rights and protections as a result of the UK Internal Market Bill and the risks associated with securing an EU-UK future relationship Bill. The groups, unfortunately, are not convinced that the Government is advocating strongly enough to ensure that those human rights protections will be secured in any agreement or in the event of no agreement. I am not speaking on my own behalf but echoing their concerns. They are not convinced that the Government is lobbying to ensure those protections will be on the table, nor that despite their requests directly to the Government and the media coverage, the Government will raise the issue at a European level or push it with the British.

I do not want to finish on a down note but concerns remain. While we are about to pass this legislation and to bring it forward, serious concerns have been expressed by some of the leading organisations and agencies that the Government is dropping the ball on these critical areas. I appeal to the Government to address these serious concerns. If it is the case that the Government is not doing enough about these issues - by the sounds of it, it is not - it needs to up its game, because they are critical.

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