Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad to see a Minister taking a slot on a Thursday evening. The graveyard slot, I think, is what people call it.

This is an incredibly important issue. As with an awful lot of issues relating to Northern Ireland politics at this time, it is nearly a different question we need to ask since the Topical Issue matter was submitted. What Edwin Poots has done as Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in ordering an end to agrichecks is obviously a complete breach. From what the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said earlier and what other commentators have stated, those checks are still ongoing and Edwin Poots may have jumped ahead of any legal checks that should have been carried out, but that is nothing shocking for him, given the chaos he finds himself in politically and the chaos his political party is in.

We need it affirmed that there is absolutely no doubt but that the withdrawal agreement and the Irish protocol are there to stay. It is an international agreement and there is an absolute requirement on the British Government to ensure that it stays. None of us have been particularly happy with some of the commentary to the effect that this relates to the Executive. I do not know where that sits at the moment in the sense that the Executive no longer exists because Paul Givan was told by Jeffrey Donaldson to resign his post and that is done. We know there is legislation being brought through that probably gives us an element of breathing time, but the fact is that Deputy McDonald has already said there should be an election. That is one thing. We need to make sure there is absolute clarity at European level, at Irish Government level and across the board that the Irish protocol is here to stay and that the British Government has an absolute requirement to ensure that. The British Government has failed because many times it has given succour to a unionism that has gone down a cul-de-sac.

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