Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Mulherin has a point about Airbnb and Booking.com. I know first hand from my own town in Boyle, where we do not have a hotel, that over the winter and the summer many people stay in farmhouses and houses around the country. With all of these new apps and modern technology such as Google Maps, they are finding their way to country lanes and this is actually helping the tourism industry and many of the restaurants in the region and in areas that do not have huge tourism infrastructure. While Airbnb is causing some issues in Dublin it has also helped the tourism industry in Dublin, and especially around the country where we do not have that infrastructure. The amount of people coming to stay in those areas is absolutely magnificent.

Last night 370 Members of Parliament in Westminster voted to remove the backstop and replace it with we do not know what. It is extremely difficult and embarrassing and it looks as though the United Kingdom is now negotiating with itself. This is all about uniting the Conservative Party. It is not about the United Kingdom, it is not about the EU and it certainly is not about the island of Ireland. The backstop in the withdrawal agreement was negotiated for two and half years and the backstop was an invention of the United Kingdom negotiation team as part of the UK red lines. As David McWilliams quoted recently, it is less "Britannia rules the waves" and more like "Britannia waives the rules". In a rules-based democracy this is very dangerous. I am aware that in the House of Commons and the House of Lords the vast majority of MPs and lords are decent, honourable people who understand what is happening. It is now time for politicians to stand up and be counted. We are going into a very difficult and dangerous phase in the next few weeks.