Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Haughey asked whether any progress has been made in recent weeks on the restoration of the institutions in Northern Ireland, the Assembly and the Executive. The truth is that nothing, or very little, progress has been made. Engagement continues between the DUP and the UK Government. The Tánaiste met with the party leaders. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will be in Dublin shortly for engagements. We are all still talking but it is fair to say that very little progress has been made at this stage. The hope is that the autumn might bring restoration, which we would all like to see because what the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want to see is the parties form an Executive, form an Assembly, and deal with the enormous problems that face people every day.

I had not heard about the House of Lords' vote. I will check up on that when I get back to the office. If it is the case that it has rejected an element of the legacy Bill, that is welcome. My understanding of the British system is that the House of Commons can then overturn that using the parliament Act. However, it raises the question as to whether experienced Members of the House of Lords are taking this view for a reason.

I reiterate the Government's opposition to the Bill, which is a position shared by the five main parties in Northern Ireland and, crucially, the victims' groups. Any legacy process has to be victim-centred and victim-led. It is important to say the proposed amnesty would not just apply to former British service personnel. It would also apply to crimes and war crimes committed by former members of the IRA and other paramilitary groups. Most of the killings and murders in Northern Ireland were carried out by former members of the IRA and other paramilitaries. We should not forget that, because legacy means holding them to account too and making sure they are brought to justice. The legislation is not yet passed, and as the Tánaiste said and I agree, we are not ruling out an interstate case. We are not at that point yet. This law is not yet on the Statute Book and does not have royal assent.

Deputy Durkan talked about the feeling of the need to move on post Brexit, and that feeling is very much there. When it comes to the Windsor Framework, it is not about renegotiating or tweaking it. It is all about implementation. It needs to be implemented in good faith, and it will be. There will be challenges around that, and we need to work with the UK Government to make sure that happens.

Deputy Barry spoke about some proposals on education in England or the UK. I am not actually aware of them. I will check it out, but I was not aware that those proposals were being made. I would be surprised if they were, quite frankly, but I am perhaps not up to date in my reading of the British newspapers.

I think the reference to "our gallant allies" is actually a reference to Germany, Austria and Hungary, who are indeed our allies, but that was a very different context. In my view, all EU countries are our allies, as are the US, Canada and the UK. We share a common travel area with the United Kingdom. People can live, work, study and access housing, healthcare and social welfare in each other's countries as though we were citizens of both. That is really important for Irish and British citizens alike. We have enormously close trading relationships. Most of us have families in Britain, I think, so we have huge connections to Britain. We help each other out on security, but we do not always agree. We have disputes and disagreements. We had them over Brexit, we have had them over legacy, and we will have them over other things. Being an ally does not mean that we just back each other up all the time. It means we tell each other the truth, often when the other person does not want to hear it. We have had to do that in our relationship with Britain on a number of occasions in recent years, and I know Deputy Boyd Barrett is a very strong ally of Palestine. I am sure in his engagement with Palestinian groups, whether it is the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO or Hamas, he would raise issues such as the suppression of LGBT rights in Gaza and the West Bank, the lack of democracy, the treatment of women, corruption and all of those things. That does not make him any less an ally.

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