Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I join with others in expressing my thanks to the former deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, for the journey he has taken, his commitment and work in the past number of years. I wish Michelle O'Neill MLA the very best in her new role. I disagree with Senator Neale Richmond in his belief that the British Government will act in good faith in terms of its responsibilities as co-guarantors to the Good Friday Agreement.

I watch the debate and I am outraged by the complete and utter indifference of the British Government and the Brexit campaigners to their responsibilities on this island. They are a massive part of the problem that existed on this island for a very long time. Now it appears that we are almost completely indifferent to their negotiations and their thought process. It was very decent of Prime Minister Theresa May to place us at No. 4 on her list of 12 items of concern. It is possible the Minister had some role in that and is to be congratulated for that. If it was to be seen in the cold light of day as to where we stand in her thought process, she had an historic opportunity to come to the Houses of the Oireachtas to speak in the Dáil and to put on record her commitment and that of the British Government to their responsibilities on this island. She decided not to do that.

I have a deep-felt distaste for hardline nationalism. It bores me to tears. I am not necessarily looking forward to the debates in the North when the electioneering begins because I find hardline nationalism on either side particularly tedious. There are other issues in Northern Ireland to discuss. I was very taken by a speech by Colum Eastwood MLA on the child poverty rate in west Belfast and the numbers of adults in west Belfast who had no formal qualifications.

Other speakers have mentioned marriage equality and other social issues that rarely get an airing. I was at a meeting in Belfast before Christmas on the issue of drugs. There are serious social issues, such as equality that need to be addressed. The hardline nationalistic stances of either side of the debate are the views that come to the fore. It is the hardline nationalist instinct in the United Kingdom which is now at the centre of the debate on Brexit. It is the campaigning zeal of those who are in favour of Brexit that has led to Britain walking off from its historic responsibilities in Europe as a whole and has led it to walk off the stage in terms of its responsibilities here.

We have had 20 years - perhaps longer - of couching everything we have said about the United Kingdom and our relationship with Britain in friendly terminology. It has been important to do that. It was important and responsible that Irish Governments and people representing the State would not say anything that would inflame tensions or make things worse, particularly when lives are at risk. However, there comes a stage when one has to call a spade a spade. When the Prime Minister in No. 10 Downing Street is pandering to the worst excesses of British nationalism, I think we must call it out. The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had a fantastic opportunity to come to these Houses and speak to the Members about the Good Friday Agreement, her commitment to it and about the fact that Brexit will not impact necessarily on peace in this island, but she is reportedly refusing to do so.

May I suggest that it is important for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, as a representative of the Government, to speak in frank terms about our dismay that Ireland and Northern Ireland are not on the real priority list for Prime Minister May and her Government and also when overseeing and commenting on the events in Northern Ireland in the coming period that it is the social issues, equality, empowerment and the issues beyond those of orange and green that will come to the fore.

It is time for the niceties of language and the pretence of friendship to be put to one side for a certain degree because if one cannot speak frankly to people who are walking away from their historic responsibilities, then we are doing the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland a disservice. This is not about a flag waving blame game. I am the last person in the world to stand with a Tricolour flying in somebody's face trying to score a nationalistic point off them. That is not me. It worries me to the bone that such a powerful country with such historic responsibilities for a place in which it has had a significant impact over centuries, does not give thought to and does not take the opportunity it had to settle the nerves I have about its intentions.

I would like the Minister to respond to my remarks. I understand that he has the responsibility for this Ministry. His words carry weight. I think that is very important. It is important that Members in this House speak frankly about the direction that Prime Minister May and her Government are taking in respect of Northern Ireland the entire island of Ireland.