Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. With regard to his last statement that the Government will prepare for the referendum when it is triggered by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Government is clearly not learning the lessons of Brexit. It will only take action when the referendum is called. We all know that a referendum, particularly on the issue of unifying Ireland, requires long-term engagement, indeed, years of engagement, and not just when the Secretary of State calls a referendum. That would only give us months.

Finally, I will refer to the Taoiseach's statement in the national risk assessment in 2018 about the overview. He said the aim of the national risk assessment was to counteract groupthink and to ensure all voices are heard by the Government. He said it seeks to prevent a repeat of mistakes of the past when dissenting voices were not heeded, leading to catastrophic consequences for the people of Ireland. For the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach to state that they did not see a Border poll as a risk and that it was too sensitive to be in the national risk assessment beggars belief.Even the Minister must be questioning the reply he was asked to give here today, which states: "Although a Border poll would not be regarded as a risk, and the very important and sensitive policy issues related to it would not be dealt with in the risk assessment process ...". We deal with everything from global terrorism to global warming to the housing crisis yet we are not willing to deal with the main aim of the State in the national risk assessment process.