Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and join others, including Senator Black, in commending her, the Tánaiste and the officials on the negotiations and on maintaining the strong position we have on the need for a backstop. I agree with Senator Black that a notable strength on the Irish side is that all in the Opposition have expressed our support for the Government position, particularly today when we see the leaked proposals from the so-called non-paper of the British Government. I echo the words of my party leader, Deputy Howlin, who said today that the proposals for a mess of new border checks is completely unacceptable and wherever they were placed would breach the agreement reached with Theresa May's Government to ensure regulatory barriers to trade on this island would be avoided. There has been a united front throughout the parties in this jurisdiction and, as others have said, this is in marked contrast to the utter chaos of the shenanigans we have seen in Westminster. This is very important.

I also commend Senator Richmond and the Seanad committee on the work done in seeking to put forward thoughtful approaches to how we can deal with this mess, which is not a mess of our making. I listened to the remarks of the Minister of State this morning when she stressed the Irish response to the non-paper leak was not just an Irish response and that the EU Commission has also rejected the non-paper as a non-starter and stated no credible proposals have been put forward for alternatives to the backstop. As did Senator Richmond, I listened with incredulity to the British Prime Minister, Mr. Johnson, on the BBC this morning. I thought it betrayed no understanding of the reality of the lived experience of people on both sides of the Border on this island. His suggestion that he would table a very good offer soon is very hard to take seriously given how little by way of credible proposals has come forward from the British side to date. The EU's negotiator, Mr. Michel Barnier, and Heads of Government throughout the EU 27 have spoken eloquently on their awareness of Ireland's concerns about the backstop and we must take heart from this and the solidarity and support shown to Ireland by other members of the EU.

I have a number of observations on events this week on the British side. I know it is only a leak and there has been some rowing back from it by the British side during the course of the day, which has been welcome, but anyone with any knowledge of security issues North and South would be aware that the suggestion we would see customs posts in the vicinity of the Border some kilometres north and south would be as much of a risk to security and peace as customs posts on the Border. Placing them at some kilometres distance would not make any difference . I speak as somebody who acted in the Special Criminal Court over a number of years and I have some knowledge of some security issues.

Something that is very striking about the language of the leavers, who are the majority in the British Tory party, is the way in which they describe the Border as an Irish Border and that it is an Irish Border problem. It reminds me of the truism-----