Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree on the need for the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to meet. I met the Secretary of State this morning, who is, as Deputy Richmond said, in Dublin. I echo the call for constructive leadership and that means we need to deliver on the spirit and the letter of the Good Friday Agreement. We need to remain steadfast on the need for the protocol to sort out the teething problems and to secure the protections it entails. We also need delivery on the substance of the New Decade, New Approach agreement, the precursor, as Deputies will recall, of the re-establishment of the Executive and the Assembly. That means producing an Irish language Act and that the Stormont House legacy mechanisms need to be in place.

I raised this issue earlier with the British Secretary of State to make clear that any resiling from those Stormont House arrangements, any dilution or watering down of them, simply will not suffice. I very much hope the Taoiseach and the Government at every level, including the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will apply all necessary pressure to ensure we get delivery. This is essential in the short and medium terms for the health and robustness of the Executive and for a government that delivers in the North, but it also has a longer-term significance, which I hope is not lost on any of us.

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