Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding Brexit and a Special Designation for Northern Ireland. On Wednesday, 15 February 2017, on the question that the amendment to the motion be agreed to, a division was claimed, and in accordance with Standing Order 70(2), that division must be taken now.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "calls on the Government to" and substitute the following:"negotiate for Northern Ireland to be designated with a special status within the EU, including:

— to secure the ongoing realisation of rights of citizens in Northern Ireland to avail of Irish, and by consequence EU citizenship, further, to uphold all of the rights and responsibilities associated with EU citizenship;

— to ensure that the four freedoms of movement of goods, workers, and capital, and the establishment and freedom to provide services are maintained;

— to protect ongoing access to EU institutions including the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and EU sectoral agreements;

— to protect and ensure full implementation of the GFA and subsequent agreements;

— to maintain future funding streams of PEACE and INTERREG financing, as a central part of consolidating and advancing the peace process;

— to enter any forthcoming negotiations in co-operation with our EU colleagues recognising the vote of the majority of citizens in Northern Ireland to remain within the EU, therefore essentially being forced to leave the EU, and to defend and uphold our national interest on an all-island basis;

— to ensure that the Amsterdam Treaty as it relates to the common travel area between the UK and Ireland, is fully respected and upheld;

— to advocate for the ongoing realisation of the rights of citizens in Northern Ireland through the introduction of a bill of rights for Northern Irish citizens;

— to establish a single Minister for Brexit at Cabinet level tasked with leading a whole-of-Government response to the challenge of Brexit;

— to review and reform North-South and British-Irish institutions to ensure that they are fit for purpose in addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by Brexit;

— to ensure both jurisdictions preserve and expand existing areas of mutual cooperation, including in such areas as access to health services, energy provision, education and trade, particularly the agri-food sector; and

— to report to the Houses of the Oireachtas, on a quarterly basis, regarding developments in the Brexit negotiations with a specific sectoral analysis to inform public debate and ensure genuine accountability."

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I move amendment No. 2:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:“notes that:

-- the British Conservative Party are attempting to use the split with the European Union (EU) as the pretext for a greater ‘liberalisation’ of trade, the creation of lower corporation tax and a bargain basement economy for working people;

-- the EU bureaucracy will seek to inflict economic penalties on Britain and by extension Northern Ireland, to put other countries off leaving the EU;

-- both the British Government and the EU bureaucracy are wedded to a neoliberal model of economics, that is contrary to the interests of working people on both sides of the border;

-- the EU/ECB/IMF ‘Troika’ austerity programme inflicted on working people in Ireland had devastating effects, this programme was replicated with a similar austerity programme in the Stormont House Agreement which proposed to cut 20,000 jobs from the public sector, privatise state assets and cut social spending; and

-- the commitment of Northern Ireland political parties, both those on the leave and remain sides of the Brexit debate, to reduce the corporate tax rate;

concludes that:

-- any attempt to impose a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will not be accepted, and declares that it will defy either the EU or Britain if either party attempts to impose such a border, and further declares that it will encourage mobilisation of ‘people power’ to remove any such border posts; and

-- the current model of developing both Irish economies on the basis of ‘tax competitiveness’ for big corporations will no longer work due to both Brexit and the declared policies of President Trump’s administration; and

calls on:

-- any incoming Northern Ireland Executive to refuse to lower corporation tax and for an open debate to begin on an alternative economic model that will create a green economy funded by greater public investment;

-- the people of Northern Ireland to withdraw allegiance from both the Brussels bureaucracy and the British state, whose interests lie in putting profits before the needs of the majority of people; and

-- working people to resist any cutbacks in living standards that are introduced under the pretext of Brexit and to forge a new unity on this island on the basis of common class interests as the great Irish socialist James Connolly advised.”