Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, this result did not come out of nowhere. For many years, people expressed concerns about the direction the EU was moving in referenda, not only in Ireland but elsewhere. The people of Ireland rejected the Nice treaty and then the European constitution was rejected by the people of France and Holland before we, in Ireland, rejected the Lisbon treaty. Again and again, people were not listened to.

Then we had the response of the major European states and its institutions to the economic crisis that unravelled across the continent. We witnessed the treatment of our own people, in particular, but also those of Portugal and Spain and, most egregiously, the people of Greece. The European institutions and those in political leadership in the EU have much to reflect on and they cannot divorce their actions and their agenda over recent years from the result of the British referendum and the unfortunate impact on Northern Ireland and Scotland, which did not vote in favour of pulling out of the Union.

The comments of the Scottish First Minister, Ms Nicola Sturgeon, regarding the likelihood of another independence referendum in her country and her wish to engage and negotiate directly with the European institutions in Brussels and elsewhere have not been opposed or criticised by any political leader on this island, yet when we in Sinn Féin stated our belief that under the Good Friday Agreement the people of the North of Ireland and the Twenty-six Counties should have their say and there should be a poll on national unity, we were roundly criticised. The Minister should make sense of that.