Elisha McCallion (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Private Members' motion is both timely and absolutely necessary. It is timely because friends of Ireland across the world in America and in Europe are standing behind us, united as one, to try to protect peace in our country. It is necessary because the British Government must feel the pressure of a united front defending the peace process and all of the Good Friday Agreement. It is a united voice in sending a very clear message to the British Government. It is also a very simple message; hands off our Good Friday Agreement. It is time for the British Government to honour its international obligations to all of the people of Ireland, and to Britain, by protecting the peace process and the political changes that have been brought about by the Good Friday Agreement.

For the past three years, the British Government has pursued a selfish and self-centred approach to its plan to leave the European Union. Ireland, our people and our economies, North and South, are to be the collateral damage of this plan. The British Government must end the uncertainty. It must bin the Internal Market Bill and accept a sensible negotiated departure from the EU as per the withdrawal agreement. Sinn Féin, along with other parties in this Chamber, has fought hard in Europe, in America and across the island to ensure that the withdrawal agreement had at least some protections for Ireland, North and South. Similarly, the Good Friday Agreement was hard-fought for and hard won so any deviation between either of those will have devastating consequences for us all.

This is a time of great hardship for many across the island. People are trying to deal with the so-called new normal and families and workers across the island are having to adjust their lives with huge challenges. The threat of a no-deal scenario or the implementation of the Internal Market Bill is adding phenomenal pressure, unnecessarily so, to Ireland, its people and our businesses. Almost everyone will be affected in this scenario but the people who will be most affected already find themselves at a disadvantage simply because of where they were born. People who live in Border constituencies will, without a doubt, be most impacted in any scenario.

Two weeks ago, the British Government told the world that it intended to break the law. Many were shocked. I was shocked that people were shocked.