Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Mr. Martin Groves on his appointment as Clerk of the Seanad. I thank him for his support, especially when I first came into the House. He still supports me and I appreciate all of his hard work.

I thank Senator Catherine Noone for highlighting the issue about which she spoke eloquently - alcohol and pregnancy and the fact that the country was among the top five in the statistics. Prevention is important in this regard, but I believe the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill can play a major role also. I encourage the Leader to ask his party members to support the Bill. It is imperative that it get through in its entirety.

I thank Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn for mentioning Luke Kelly and endorse his comments 100%.

I was in Queen's University Belfast last night to attend an interesting event organised by the university law society to discuss Brexit, the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in London last week and its implications for the North.I am very concerned. At that event, among top professors and lawyers there was a great deal of certainty about the position of the UK Government but there was a general lack of knowledge about the position of the Irish Government and what demands, if any, will be made in the forthcoming negotiations. This is very worrying.

With the UK position on immigration it seems certain that a border will have to be reintroduced on the island of Ireland which will deny Irish citizens living in the North freedom of movement. The Prime Minister has spoken about retaining the freedom of movement between the two countries but this does not seem possible. Will the Irish Government insist that the North get special status in the negotiations? Freedom of movement on the island must be a redline issue. It is vital. The great repeal Bill will end the EU's legal supremacy in the UK and give Parliament the power to absorb pieces of EU legislation into UK law and scrap elements it does not want. Is there a danger that EU legislation dealing with equality issues may be scrapped, thus undermining the Good Friday Agreement? As a co-guarantor of the agreement will the Irish Government insist this does not happen?