Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, we will take four minutes each. I thank the Minister of State for representing the Minister here today and I thank the Fianna Fáil Senators for bringing this important motion before us.

We are at a rare moment in the evolving political history of our nation, one which encompasses centuries of history, centuries of injustice, centuries of interference in the affairs of our people, centuries of betrayal by British Governments motivated by the most base of instincts, self-interest, which has resulted in a litany of broken promises and broken treaties between the people of this country and the British Government.

Boris Johnson is but the latest occupant of 10 Downing Street to indulge himself in self-serving politics at the expense of the people of Ireland, irrespective of their political allegiance. It matters little to Boris Johnson, and those around him, that his actions are undermining the most important peace treaty that has ever been signed by the representatives of the people of Ireland and the British Government. It matters little to him that peace in our country, which is now a way of life, especially for the people of the North, is threatened by his actions as he systematically, through the Internal Market Bill, strips the withdrawal agreement back to the bone and in doing so endangers the very existence of the Good Friday Agreement. Boris Johnson and his ilk have no sense of the difference the Good Friday Agreement has made to living in the North for me and my generation compared with my parents' and grandparents' generation who lived constantly in fear of the armed forces of the state and their proxies, and the humiliation of being treated as second class citizens in the land of their birth.

The Good Friday Agreement not only brought peace to Ireland, its political structures, the all-Ireland ministerial council; the Executive and Assembly and the east-west institutions are creating a new political culture where dialogue, discussion and compromise are centre stage. This new political culture faces erosion if the British Government is successful in its attempts to either renegotiate the withdrawal agreement and protocol or crashes out of the European Union. What the British Government is seeking in its negotiations with the EU, a uniquely privileged non-membership trade deal without responsibility or costs, is simply not on offer. The British Government's Internal Market Bill does not just threaten the Good Friday Agreement and the withdrawal agreement, it also breaks international law and violates international treaties and it does so in a very public way as we saw with the British Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, in the House of Commons just a few weeks ago. The Bill also represents a serious attack on the powers of all the Good Friday Agreement institutions strands 1, 2 and 3. It invests these powers in the British Secretary of State, thereby creating an undemocratic environment in which the British Government can unilaterally and arbitrarily impose its rules and regulations, regardless of the democratic decisions of the Assembly and Executive.

Boris Johnson's parade of unchecked power at Westminster has provoked a storm of international criticism, including in the US, the EU and here at home. The response to the motion before the Seanad from Fianna Fáil should reflect the united opposition Boris Johnson is facing in the US, the EU and elsewhere. This Government, the Seanad and the Dáil need to be constantly alert to the deceitful and devious manoeuvres of the British Government when it comes to Irish affairs and act as one in response. As rightly stated earlier this week by Senator Norris, the Assembly in the North passed a similar motion calling for the withdrawal of the Internal Market Bill and adherence to the withdrawal agreement and the Irish protocols.

The British Government has been whittling away at the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement for years while deliberately refusing to fully implement it. The Irish Government must continue to mobilise support in the US and in the EU with vigour and determination. In doing so it will have Sinn Fein's support in the Oireachtas and elsewhere. Nobody can afford to take their eye off the North until the Good Friday Agreement is safe, secure and fully implemented and the Internal Market Bill is binned. We must always remember that there is a way out of all of this. There is a way for the North to get back to the EU. That route is laid out in the Good Friday Agreement, which everyone rightly supports and argues we must defend and protect to the hilt. If that is the case, then we must protect, defend and implement all of the Good Friday Agreement. The agreement did not settle the constitutional question. Rather, it asks us the constitutional question. To pursue this legitimate and democratic pathway off the disastrous Tory Brexit agenda, back into the EU and determining our own future ourselves should never be branded as "divisive". It is the opposite. It is healthy, it is positive and, my God, it has never been more necessary.