Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Over time, and this is where the Whitaker comments come in, patience and perseverance are what are required. Anybody who looks to be opportunistic in terms of trying to achieve his or her, albeit legitimate, political ends in Northern Ireland and is trying to rush agendas and using other political crises to do so is, in my view, undermining the overall project here, which has to be about uniting Irish people and Irish communities, North and South. When I was involved in the leadership contest in my party I had the slogan "Uniting Ireland", and I was very clear about what that meant, which, by the way, applied to communities outside of Northern Ireland also. We have seen a divided society develop in Ireland, given what we have been through in the past ten years. Big political parties like mine have an obligation to try to bring people together.We have been trying to do that in some of the decisions we have made in the budget announced yesterday, but in the context of Northern Ireland, it is about bringing communities together in a way that can allow them to trust each other, talk to each other and put the past in a context that allows communities to move on. That is what I mean by trying to unite people. If we can do that, then other exciting things are possible, but if we try to do it in reverse, to force a political agenda in a way that is threatening, then we will continue to divide communities. A majority community today could potentially become a threatened minority community tomorrow. That is not what the uniting Ireland agenda should be about. It should be about generosity, recognising the diversity and difference on this island, and recognising who people are, where they come from and what they hold as important in the context of their own identities. The genius of the Good Friday Agreement is that it caters for all that in terms of east-west relations, North-South relations, and a way of changing the constitutional structures on the island of Ireland should a majority of people want to do that. Personally, I think that is some time off. We have a responsibility to prioritise reconciliation and understanding. We have a lot of work to do in that area before other questions under the Good Friday Agreement's conditions are followed.

I take Senator Feighan's point. This is an evolution of relationships between Ireland and Britain. We have come a long way and we are now being tested in quite a fundamental way by something that has come out of left field, in some ways, in the context of Brexit. I would caution against using the difficulties and complexities around the Brexit debate as a way of trying to pursue another end of a united Ireland agenda. We need to work with unionism and nationalism in Northern Ireland to find practical solutions that protect the interests of this island as a whole and protect the interests of the Irish-British relationship, which, regardless of what happens in Brexit, has got to remain a close interwoven relationship because we cannot undo it even if we want to, and I do not believe we want to. Unfortunately, Britain has chosen to leave the European Union but there is a negotiation ongoing now which Ireland is in the centre of, as we should be, and we have worked hard to ensure that we have placed Irish issues at the centre of those negotiations. We continue to do that to try to address some of the issues that many of the Senators have raised. However, there is a danger sometimes that positioning on Brexit questions provokes and encourages a divisive response in Northern Ireland that forces people back into the unionism versus nationalism debate. Brexit should not be a green versus orange issue. I certainly will work to try to ensure that it is not.

My view is pretty well known on the issue of the customs union. I find it very difficult to see how we can solve the Border challenges on the island of Ireland in the context of Brexit unless Britain and Ireland and the rest of European Union are part of a shared customs union. We can call it whatever we want, Britain staying in the customs union or Britain negotiating with the EU task force a customs union partnership, but the net result has to be same. When one drives from Dublin to Derry or Dublin to Belfast, if one is moving from one customs union to another, there is no way of avoiding some Border infrastructure, whether it is at the Border or in people's businesses or farmyards, if one is having to manage the movement of goods from one customs union to another. That is why there are no easy answers to this in the context of the current approach by the British Government, and we need to continue to explore solutions here. The language has improved in this context. There is now talk of transition periods and maintaining the status quoduring that. There is talk of a customs union partnership as opposed to simply just leaving a customs union. There is talk of a trade partnership as opposed to demanding a free trade agreement. I think the British Government is exploring ways in which we can try to discuss these matters when we get to phrase two of the negotiations. However, let us not forget the job we need to do in phase one first, particularly in the context of Northern Ireland, the Border, protecting the Good Friday Agreement and its full implementation, protecting a common travel area, on which I think we are making good progress, and the need for us to work with all parties in Northern Ireland in an effort to find a practical way forward on that. Our efforts to do that would certainly be a lot easier to do if we had a First and deputy First Minister and an Executive that was all inclusive.

I thank colleagues for their contributions. If they have suggestions or queries, they can contact me at any point on these issues. Once again, I remind people that we are at a very important point. This week is an important one in the context of Northern Ireland and the job that we need to do together. I hope it will have a successful outcome by the end of the week.