Dáil debates

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Ceisteanna - Questions

Departmental Offices

4:10 pm

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the international unit of his Department. [24325/22]

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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5. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the international unit of his Department. [25826/22]

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the international unit of his Department. [26001/22]

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the international unit of his Department. [26004/22]

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the international unit of his Department. [26030/22]

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the international unit of his Department. [26198/22]

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 9, inclusive, together.

The international section of the Department supports my work at an international level, beyond the EU, to promote Ireland's foreign and economic policy objectives and to develop and maintain strong bilateral and multilateral relations. Working closely with other departments, especially the Department of Foreign Affairs, the section provides me with advice and briefing on bilateral and multilateral relations, and on international issues generally, including international peace and security, overseas development assistance, and international human rights.

The section also oversees the implementation of the Global Ireland 2025 strategy and chairs a senior officials group to monitor progress on implementation of the UN strategic development goals, supporting the work of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications in overseeing coherent implementation across government. The section co-ordinates my international travel, as well as my engagement with Heads of State and government, and with other senior international figures and organisations.

Recent outbound visits include my attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 25 May, where I participated in a panel discussion on European unity in the context of the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, met a number of senior executives from multinational companies with a significant presence in Ireland, including at an event hosted by IDA Ireland, had bilateral meetings with the President of Israel and the Foreign Minister of Ukraine and engaged with, among others, the Prime Ministers of Moldova, Greece, and Croatia, as well as the Chancellor of Austria and other European, Middle East, African and Latin American leaders.

The section also supported my visit to members of the Irish Defence Forces serving in UNIFIL in Lebanon on 28 and 29 May, to mark International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. During my visit to Lebanon, I met the head of mission and force commander of UNIFIL, Major General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz, visited the town of Tibnin, laid a wreath at the memorial in memory of the 47 members of the Defence Forces who lost their lives serving in Lebanon, met members of the local community, visited the Defence Forces stationed at UN position 2-45, observed their important work first-hand and visited UN position 652, which helps to secure the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel. During my visit I also had short meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saadeh Al Shami, and the Minister of Tourism, Walid Nassar. I was accompanied by the Minister for Defence, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the Chief of Staff for the Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy.

The international section also co-ordinates inbound visits, and I was pleased recently to be able to receive, among others, the Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, on 25 April, a visiting US congressional delegation, headed by Congressman Richard E. Neal on 23 May, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Olga Stefanishyna, on 3 June. I also met the Prime Minister of Holland, Mark Rutte.

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The chair of the European Parliament's Palestinian delegation issued a damning statement last month in response to Israel's eleventh-hour decision to ban him from entering Palestine and the delegation from visiting Gaza. Israel's interference in member state politicians' engagement with the Palestinian institutions and civic and human rights group is a constant that would not be accepted from any other state with which the EU has a long-term economic and trade agreement.

Just a week before Israel's authorities banned the delegation's visit, the EU announced a €25 million humanitarian aid package to meet the basic needs of vulnerable Palestinians in Gaza as well as in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. On announcing that funding, the Commissioner called on Israel to respect international humanitarian law and condemned the continued eviction of civilians and demolition of their homes, schools and basic infrastructure.

Israel's blockade of Gaza is ruthless. It is a breach of international law and has crippled the economy, with two thirds of the population reliant on humanitarian assistance. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel continues to restrict Palestinian access to essential goods and services, including water, electricity and education. UN special rapporteur Michael Lynk has called for Israel's latest escalation of rocket attacks on Gaza to be investigated by the International Criminal Court. Yet, the UN, EU and this Government are totally ineffectual when it comes to holding the Israeli authorities to account for their innumerable breaches of international human rights law and the operation of an apartheid regime against Palestinians. Surely it is now time for the Taoiseach to not alone support the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, but to champion its provisions through this House and with our EU partners.

Photo of Ivana BacikIvana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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We heard an important briefing today from Dóchas on the Horn of Africa crisis, where up to 20 million people could go hungry due to drought and the fallout from the brutal war on Ukraine. What additional aid will Ireland commit to the growing food crisis in the global south? How can we use our position on the UN Security Council to find solutions to the Russian embargo on Ukrainian grain exports, while being conscious that Russia is clearly weaponising food production in Ukraine?

I also wish to ask about our position on the TRIPS waiver, given that the WTO ministerial conference is taking place in Geneva now. I am conscious that Oxfam Ireland has urged the Tánaiste to use his position on the WTO's foreign affairs council to advocate for a full TRIPS waiver to facilitate the local production of Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests in lower- and middle-income countries. Will Ireland support a full TRIPS waiver to end global Covid-19 vaccine inequality? Will Ireland advocate this week at the WTO ministerial conference for the EU to support such a waiver?

In Ireland, 81% of people had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, compared to only 14% of people in lower-income countries. Nearly 30,000 people worldwide have died every day from Covid since the TRIPS waiver was first proposed, the majority in low-income countries. I am conscious of the immense devastation Covid has caused here, with reports growing of long Covid and a lack of treatments for people suffering from it. However, I am also conscious, as all of us are, that the implications and impact have been so much worse from those who suffered from Covid in low-income countries without the same access to vaccines and treatments that we in the developed world and, in particular, in the EU have had. Can we support a full TRIPS waiver?

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Within days of Putin's bloody and inexcusable invasion of Ukraine, the Taoiseach, along with other European leaders, demanded that Putin and his regime become outcasts in the international community and have argued for boycott, sanctions and divestment of Putin's regime for his horrible crimes. Yet the Taoiseach has reported that he met the Israeli President and continues with normal economic, political and diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, which refused a European parliamentary delegation entry to Palestinian territory. The UN special rapporteur for the Middle East, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B'Tselem all recently condemned the state of Israel for ongoing systematic crimes against humanity.

A siege against Gaza has gone on for a decade and has brought the entirety of Gaza into "a permanent humanitarian crisis". Yet, there is no call for sanctions, a boycott or divestment but just business as usual with the state of Israel. Could the Taoiseach please explain these extraordinary double standards? There has been no sanction at all against Israel, and even when the most respected international human rights organisations in the world are saying there should be targeted sanctions, he resists. I ask the Taoiseach please to explain it, because the double standards are shocking.

4:20 pm

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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4 o’clock

I note from the Taoiseach's reports that he spends a lot of time at meetings and travelling to visit various delegations and discussing the horror, as he described it, of the war in Ukraine and the extraordinary inhumanity being imposed by Russian forces on the people of Ukraine. I ask him to perform a very simple act of solidarity that would go a long way towards alleviating that horror. There are tens of thousands of Ukrainian people living in Poland, having fled Ukraine since the start of the war. Many are women who have been raped by Russian soldiers as part of the war effort. Rape is always used as a weapon in war. As a result, many of them end up pregnant. Under current Polish legislation, those who find themselves pregnant as a result of rape and who wish to seek an abortion have to go to court to prove they have been raped. That law is being applied to those Ukrainian women who have been raped by members of the Russian army or the other forces attacking them. They are being cruelly treated in being told they must also prove they are pregnant as a result of rape before they can access abortion. That is inhuman and cruel. There will be an amendment by The Left party before the parliament next week to lift that restriction and to allow Ukrainian women access to abortion. Access for all is hugely important. Will the Taoiseach support the amendment by The Left party and make it clear that he considers it an abomination that women who have been raped in a war cannot access abortion?

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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As we know, the British Government has published legislation to set aside various aspects of the protocol. It is clearly a breach of the UK's commitments under international law. It seems to me that the British Prime Minister has done deals all over the place, including with the European Research Group in the Tory Party, to win his recent no-confidence vote. The legislation can be seen in that context. Boris Johnson is, in effect, setting aside international law, destroying British-Irish relations and EU-UK relations, weakening the Good Friday Agreement and risking a trade war between the EU and the UK. The British Government has said that it is setting aside the protocol to protect the Good Friday Agreement. Nothing could be further from the truth. The complete opposite is, in fact, the case. The legislation has been brought forward simply to appease just one of the political parties in the North, to the detriment of the Good Friday Agreement as a whole. It is important for the international unit of the Taoiseach's Department to get the message out loud and clear to our friends across the world that what the British Government is doing could actually wreck the peace process, not the opposite, as some have claimed.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The decision to ban an EU delegation from entering Palestine is reprehensible and wrong. We have consistently, at EU level but, more significantly, at the UN Security Council, raised issues pertaining to Israeli policy within the West Bank, settlements and a range of other matters. We have been probably one of most consistent and proactive countries in that regard, most recently in respect of the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al-Jazeera journalist. I met with the President of Israel, at his request, on the margins of Davos. He has strong Irish connections, as the House will be aware. We never lose an opportunity to put across our perspective and viewpoint on the settlement policy and how wrong it is and the need for a two-state solution to that issue.

I say to Deputy McDonald and others that, internationally, Ireland is one of the few countries that continues to hold Israel to account for its actions in the Middle East. The US and others continue to support the position of Israel on the Middle East, although they also provide significant supports. President Biden provides supports. His administration has restored some supports for Palestinians that President Trump had got rid of. A broader international effort is required in advocating on behalf of the Palestinians with Americans and others to get balance, a proper approach and a proper process involved in order to have a meaningful opportunity for a two-state solution and financial supports for the West Bank and Gaza and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA. The European Union has made the strongest representations recently. The Commission was making attempts to put conditions on supports to the Palestinian Authority in the form of funding from Europe and we have pushed very hard to have those conditions removed. We feel that is an unacceptable new development in respect of EU funding of the Palestinian Authority.

The Horn of Africa crisis, which Deputy Bacik raised, is a very serious issue in respect of the potential of famine arising out of Putin's war. Without question, Putin has weaponised energy, food and migration. That is a real issue facing the world right now. I do not accept the proposition regarding a TRIPS waiver. The European Union has, however, reached agreement with the leaders of Africa, particularly through the African Union, following the recent European Union - African Union summit. Europe is the only real player involved in investing huge funds to develop the capacity to manufacture mRNA vaccines and technology more generally into the future in Africa - in South Africa and Senegal. It never gets acknowledged in this House. I am not referring to Deputy Boyd Barrett, but others in the House keep beating the anti-European Union drum. Actually, the European Union has been the great donor of vaccines. The issue with vaccines is no longer a TRIPS waiver. I never accepted that it was and thought at the time that the TRIPS waiver was more a sound bite than a solution. There is a surplus of vaccines at the moment. What is really at stake now is getting the vaccines into people's arms, overcoming a lot of hesitancy about vaccines across Africa and various states.

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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A Thaoisigh, I remind you of the time.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Am I over time?

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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You are way over. Finish up on these questions.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Europe is committed to creating that capacity within Africa to produce medicines into the future, particularly in respect of mRNA technology, which would be very significant.

I think Deputy Boyd Barrett has taken issue with the fact that I met the President of Israel.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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There is a double standard. The Taoiseach would not meet Putin but he meets the Israelis.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not believe it is a double standard. What Putin is doing in Ukraine now is a bit much.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The suffering of Palestinians is less important.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No, I am not saying that, but let us not try to make a moral equivalence. The Deputy should just be honest.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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There is a moral equivalence.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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He should be unequivocal in his condemnation-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----of what is the worst form of warfare I have ever witnessed, on a relentless basis. Putin's Russia is bombing and levelling village after village-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Israelis have done that to Gaza as well.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and town after town and civilian after civilian.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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No sanctions - ever.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Putin has weaponised food and weaponised energy-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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So have the Israelis.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----which is having global consequences-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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What does the Taoiseach think the siege of Gaza is except a weaponisation of food?

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish effort in respect of Palestine has been very proactive down through the years-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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No sanctions - never.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----but the Deputy does not have the wherewithal even to acknowledge that because it is his way or the highway. He has a broader world view in always trying somehow to make the real, shocking brutality of what is going on equal to somebody else's actions. We have to deal with the Middle East situation.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am just against all brutality; I am not selective.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We have to deal with settlements. We have to deal with other European Union colleagues, the United States and other countries-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach is selective in his condemnation.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----to bring about a resolution to the Middle East crisis. Ireland continues to support generously-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Saudi regime. The Government supports it all right.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----the Palestinians.

I will raise Deputy Bríd Smith's points with our colleagues in the European Parliament. I am not familiar with the precise nature of the amendment. Was the Deputy talking about the European Parliament?

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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No. I was talking about the Polish Parliament. The Left in Poland has an amendment seeking to give raped Ukrainian women access to abortion.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry. I thought the Deputy meant the European Parliament because, obviously-----

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Whatever powers the Government has to condemn-----

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We do not have such powers. I do not have powers-----

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It should use whatever influence it has. The Taoiseach seems to be talking to many people about the war in Ukraine a lot of the time.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has clarified the matter. We do not have powers in respect of the Polish Parliament.

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I know. I am not stupid. I know the Government does not have powers in the Polish Parliament.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We have spoken to the Polish Government. We have had discussions at the European Council on a range of issues as to what can be done. Again, we will raise-----

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Perhaps the Government could raise the issue of women who are raped as a weapon of war being given access to abortion.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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May I answer? We will raise it with the Polish Government.

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Good.

4:30 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy did not make it clear that it was the Polish Parliament she was referring to. I wanted to establish if it was the European Parliament that was being referred to.

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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An amendment will before the Polish Parliament next week.

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We will raise that matter with the Polish Government.

Deputy Haughey raised the protocol issue. I do not disagree with his fundamental point that this is fundamentally an issue of relationships, trust and, above all, honouring international agreements which were freely entered into by the British Government and ratified at parliamentary level in Westminster. This is very serious in its impacts on the Good Friday Agreement, the economy, trade and the whole relationship and trust between the European Union, the British Government and our Government.