Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach if he has spoken to Prime Minister May regarding the 1987 Enniskillen bombing recently in view of the fact that it is 30 years since it occurred and persons have not been held accountable. [47901/17]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his visit to Enniskillen on Remembrance Sunday, 12 November 2017. [48975/17]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach the position regarding his Department's strategy statement commitment on implementing the all party Dáil Éireann motions of 2008 and 2011 relating to the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombing. [49421/17]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent meeting with Ms Arlene Foster MLA. [50206/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together.

While I have not had detailed discussions with Prime Minister May on the Enniskillen bombing, I have raised the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and other legacy cases with her. I have stressed to her the importance of making progress on legacy issues and the overall arrangements for dealing with the past. The Government is strongly committed and working to achieve, as soon as possible, the establishment of the legacy institutions provided for in the Stormont House Agreement. The Government will continue to engage with the British Government on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and pursue all possible avenues to achieve progress on this issue consistent with the request made by the Dáil and in the hope that it will bring some measure of closure to the families.

The Enniskillen bombing was one of the worst atrocities carried out during the Troubles. It was a barbaric act which resulted in the pointless murder of many innocent people. I attended Remembrance Day ceremonies in Enniskillen on Sunday, 12 November, which also marked the 30th anniversary of the bombing. I laid a wreath at the Cenotaph and attended a Remembrance Service in St. Macartin's Cathedral before visiting the Royal British Legion hall for lunch. In the afternoon, I visited the South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen, for a tour of the facility with local representatives and had a private meeting with staff, many of whom cared for the victims of the 1987 bombing. During my visit to Enniskillen, I also took the opportunity to meet with DUP leader, Ms Arlene Foster, to discuss the ongoing political situation in Northern Ireland and Brexit.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On a Sunday in November 1987, as the Taoiseach said, the Provisional IRA brought an unspeakable horror to a picturesque Fermanagh town with a proud military tradition. Its bomb, left in a community hall, was timed to explode as people of all ages gathered to pay their respects to the dead of two world wars and later campaigns. When the dust finally settled on the scattered debris and the mangled poppy leaves around the Cenotaph, six men and five women lay dead or dying and a seventh man would remain in a coma for 13 years before succumbing to his injuries. The 40 lb bomb had been brought across the Border by several terrorist cells working in relays to avoid detection. They placed the deadly device in a building known as the Reading Rooms adjacent to prime vantage points for those attending the annual service. Subsequent statements from the IRA attempted to distance the organisation from the full horror of the slaughter. Initially, the IRA claimed, falsely, that the bomb had been detonated by electric equipment carried by members of the security forced. It then stated that a UDR colour party was the intended target.

In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, the softly spoken words of Mr. Gordon Wilson, the father of 20 year old nurse, Marie Wilson, who died at the scene, set a conciliatory tone which, in public at least, became synonymous with the town's Protestant population. He said: "I bear no ill will. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie."

The reason I have asked my question on Enniskillen is twofold. First, the event illustrates the unspeakable horror that occurred; a horror which calls into question how anyone could support, cheer or endorse that kind of violence. Second, however, is the fact that out of that event came the spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness which Gordon Wilson personified in his life. Nevertheless, no one was ever convicted of the bombing. Related to this issue are attempts to introduce an effective amnesty for many different groups from the Provisional IRA, the DUP and members of the British establishment. Recently, there was an attempt to introduce an effective amnesty for British military personnel, which is a disturbing development. The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were horrific bombings carried out by loyalist paramilitaries where, again, no satisfactory convictions or conclusions have occurred. In fact, inquiries have been stymied by the British establishment and Government. Can the Taoiseach update the House on legacy issues? Has he spoken to the Prime Minister, Mrs. May, about any amnesty, in particular to ensure that nothing like that can occur?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It is ironic that Enniskillen is on one side of the Border while Monaghan is on the other side. I commend the Taoiseach on attending the commemoration, as the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, did every year. Did he speak with the leader of the DUP and former First Minister, Ms Arlene Foster, about Brexit, conscious of the fact that her party has a different view of Brexit from most if not all parties in the Republic and the majority of people who voted in the referendum in the North? Going back to Enniskillen and Monaghan, Brexit is equally threatening to both towns. It creates the risk of significant job losses over a long period and risks a potential return of a hard border.

Following the complete confusion and chaos in government arising from the questions put by my colleague, Deputy Alan Kelly, not being answered properly, the Taoiseach has said he will concentrate his efforts in the next couple of weeks on Brexit and protecting the interests of everybody on the island. How does he propose to undo the damage potentially caused to our and his reputation by what has happened in the past week? He will have to negotiate in a hardball way at the end of the next two weeks at the European summit. Did he receive or seek any assurance from Ms Foster on whether the DUP might address and be mindful of the interests of the people, not just in the North but all of the people on the island? Did he discuss the dangers posed to agriculture and trade, particularly in the North but also in the South, as well as the dangers posed to tens of thousands of jobs by a hard Brexit or the return of a hard border?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I echo the comments made in memory of the Enniskillen bombing. What was the nature of the conversation the Taoiseach had with Ms Arlene Foster regarding Border issues post-Brexit? The preferred option of the Irish Government, that the United Kingdom as a whole remain in the customs union, does not now seem to be a real option. Of the remaining options, is it our preferred position that there be some border arrangement in the Irish Sea such that all east-west trade, that is, trade between the island of Ireland and Britain, would be treated in a similar manner? Did the Taoiseach discuss such an arrangement with Ms Arlene Foster and what response did he receive? How does he see it playing out as we approach the European Council meeting on 15 December? Does the Government have an effective veto on what the UK Government does in that regard? How do we maintain communication with the DUP and others in the North to ensure we will not antagonise them and can break the impasse as we broke the impasse here yesterday and this morning? How do we break the deadlock on this Border issue?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The victims of the conflict have been very much in our thoughts in recent weeks and I, too, commend the Taoiseach for his attendance at the cenotaph in Enniskillen to commemorate the attack in which 12 innocent lives had been claimed. He may be familiar with the documentary "No Stone Unturned" which was made by Mr. Alex Gibney about the killing of six men in Loughinisland in 1994. It brought substantial new attention to the level of collusion between British state forces and unionist paramilitaries. I am sure the Taoiseach is aware that, at the start of the month in a victory for the victims of the Glenanne gang, the High Court in Belfast confirmed that it was making an order to compel the Chief Constable of the PSNI to complete an overarching investigation into the activities of the gang which, as the Taoiseach knows, was implicated in the Dublin-Monaghan bomb attacks. Thus far, the British Government has refused to co-operate with the Irish Government - indeed, successive Governments - on these matters. The programme for Government specifically commits the Government to actively pursue implementation of the all-party Dáil motions of 2008 and 2011 on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Has the Taoiseach raised these issues with the British Prime Minister? What is his view of the British Government's intentions to include a Statute of Limitations or an amnesty for members of the British crown forces in its soon-to-be-published legacy paper? He will be aware that at the time of the Stormont House Agreement we managed to reach agreement on the architecture and mechanisms for truth recovery to begin dealing with legacy issues but at no point was an amnesty for any combatant of the crown forces or other force even considered, much less agreed to. I have spoken to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade who has very strongly indicated his opposition to any suggestion that there be a Statute of Limitations or an amnesty. Can the Taoiseach offer to the House his assessment of that proposition?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It was a real humbling experience to attend in Enniskillen a few weeks ago. I had been there before but not to attend Remembrance Sunday. When one stands there on a very cold day and sees people gathering around the cenotaph to mourn the dead in two wars, one can only imagine in one's mind's eye what it must have been like when people suddenly experienced a bomb going off and all of the horror and carnage that must have gone with it. I was only eight years old when the bombing happened, but I remember it well. Gordon Wilson is one of my memories of the Troubles for the way he showed such extraordinary leadership to us all by responding to such an atrocity with forgiveness. I am really proud that he subsequently became a Member of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

I also had the opportunity to meet a person who had kept one of the wreaths from the day, a wreath that had been partially damaged by the bomb and which was going to a museum. I met one man and his wife who had had to have 44 operations in the past 30 years as a consequence of the bombing. I am conscious that the next day the UDA carried out a revenge attack in which one person died and 60 others were injured. I do not think it is inappropriate to use this opportunity to encourage the incoming leader of Sinn Féin to agree with me that the men who planted the bomb were no heroes and should be condemned and brought to justice. I invite the deputy leader of Sinn Féin to take the opportunity in this House, given that questions have been tabled by others, not by me, to say that.

I spent most of the day with Ms Arlene Foster, not one to one but with lots of others, at the cenotaph, the church service, the cathedral and the British legion. At her invitation, I then visited South West Acute Hospital where I had the opportunity to meet other public representatives, including the local MP Ms Michelle Gildernew and MLAs from different parties. It is a fabulous new hospital in Enniskillen, but, if anything, it is underused. We discussed ways by which we might enable more patients from counties Donegal and Sligo to use its facilities to help us to deal with our capacity shortcomings.

We also had a one to one meeting and the topics of conversation were principally the ongoing efforts to get power-sharing back up and running in Northern Ireland and Brexit. Ms Foster always says she wants to have a sensible Brexit. She is certainly open to the idea of a new customs arrangement or partnership between the United Kingdom and the European Union as one of the mechanisms that might allow us to continue to trade more or less as we do now, at least when it comes to merchandise. It would, of course, cover the whole of the United Kingdom, not just Northern Ireland. It is not hugely dissimilar to the proposal recently put forward by the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce, which has a lot of merit. However, for the United Kingdom to enter into any meaningful new customs partnership or customs union arrangement with the European Union, it would not be possible for it to then negotiate bilateral trade deals with third countries. We remain unable to square this circle. It is still the desire of the British Government to be able to trade freely with the European Union as though the United Kingdom were still in the customs union but also to conclude deals with third countries, However, that is just not possible.

It is important that, when we talk about special arrangements and measures for Northern Ireland, we reassure the unionist parties in the North that we do not want to undermine the union in so doing.

We respect the Good Friday Agreement and that Northern Ireland remains in the United Kingdom until the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise. It is important that we reassure the unionist parties there that any efforts we try or any measures we propose in relation to the Border with Northern Ireland are not about changing the constitutional status of Northern Ireland but about ensuring ordinary people, businesses and farmers can go about their lives as they have for the past 20 years. We are much more likely to have them as advocates for the type of solution we want if we do not put them in a position where they feel threatened about Brexit undermining the union.

We also need to recognise that one of the things they do not want is to disrupt the trading relationship between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. What she would say to me is the main single market Northern Ireland wants to stay in is the United Kingdom single market, and the main customs union it wants to stay in is the customs union of the UK, and it does not want anything that would diminish this. Of course, the counterpoint I would always make is the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted the other way, to remain in the European Union. The level of understanding and the commonality in position may be closer than some of the rhetoric I have heard in the last couple of weeks.

The issue of the Statute of Limitations came up last week. We do not agree with it. We very much disagree with the proposal and we have informed the British Government of our opposition to it.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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We will try to endeavour to get the three groups in today, but we are losing some time.