Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the high court in Belfast made a ruling that parts of the Tories' Rwanda Act cannot be applied in Northern Ireland as they undermine human rights protections under the post-Brexit Windsor Framework and, indeed, that some parts are also incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, ECHR. The judgment is under appeal but it confirms the concerns Deputy Ó Ríordáin and I in this House, and the British Labour Party MP, Stella Creasy, in Westminster, have been raising for some months. Our concerns were that the Rwanda Act would undermine the equivalence of human rights protections under the Good Friday Agreement. We have been repeatedly raising these issues.

Now that the judgment has been handed down, how does the Taoiseach propose to deal with the issues it raises? The Minister for Finance said earlier that Ireland would address concerns at political and diplomatic level with the British Government. How does the Taoiseach propose to follow up on the matter? Has he received legal advice from the Attorney General on whether the Government, as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, can still designate the UK as a safe country?

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