Yesterday, the High Court in Belfast ruled that people born in the North of Ireland are British citizens even where they identify as and are Irish. The ruling was made in the case of Emma DeSouza. Emma has fought a long and admirable campaign with the British Home Office to be legally recognised as an Irish citizen only. Emma's case is well known and has become a symbol of the need to protect Irish identify and citizenship in the North. Despite the fact her right to identify solely as an Irish citizen had been upheld at a number of tribunal hearings, the British Home Office dragged Emma through the courts to overturn that decision. She believes, with good reason, that this represents a hardline effort on the part of the British Government to restrict access to EU entitlements for citizens in the North of Ireland following Brexit.

Yesterday's ruling represents a clear effort by the British Government to undermine the Good Friday Agreement. In fact, the ruling tramples all over the agreement. That agreement is crystal clear that those born in the North of Ireland are entitled to identify as British, Irish, or both. However, the British Home Office refuses to recognise Emma DeSouza as an Irish-only citizen resident in the North of Ireland and, in so doing, it refuses to recognise the core legal component of the Good Friday Agreement.

The decision has also exposed the failure of successive British Governments to enshrine the relevant provisions of the Good Friday Agreement in domestic law. The identity and citizenship provisions are critical to the integrity of the agreement as a whole and they must be protected and defended to the hilt. The British Home Office must acknowledge the birthright provisions of the Good Friday Agreement and allow Emma to assert her full rights as an Irish and EU citizen. They must also understand that it is unacceptable to pursue a young woman through the courts for simply being Irish, especially when her position had already been legally vindicated.

More than 20 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the British Government continues to fail in its responsibilities as a co-guarantor. Those failures must be challenged. The Taoiseach told us that Irish citizens in the North would never again be left behind by an Irish Government and he now needs to follow through on those words and that promise. The Government, as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, has a key role to play. The Taoiseach needs to step up and defend Emma, her rights and the rights of all Irish citizens in the North. Can he indicate what the Government proposes to do to defend the Good Friday Agreement in light of this ruling?

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising this important issue, which is of huge significance to people living in Northern Ireland in particular. The Good Friday Agreement is eloquent on this matter in my view. It states that people in Northern Ireland have a right to be British, Irish or both, and accepted as such. That is the letter and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. It is my view that the British citizenship laws are out of step with the letter and spirit of that agreement, making a distinction between how people identify as to their citizenship.

Ms DeSouza is an Irish citizen and does have an Irish passport. This is an issue the Tánaiste has raised with the Secretary of State and will do again in the coming days. I raised it in the past with Prime Minister May and will do so again on Thursday or Friday with Prime Minister Johnson.

Last February, when the issue was raised with Prime Minister May, she acknowledged the serious and real concerns in this area and pledged to review the issues around citizenship urgently to deliver a long-term solution consistent with the letter and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. We continue actively to seek an outcome of that review. As I mentioned, it will be raised by the Tánaiste with the Secretary of State in the next couple of days. I will raise it with the Prime Minister also.

The Good Friday Agreement is not only eloquent but it is also crystal clear on the right of any citizen to be recognised as Irish, as British or as both. As the Taoiseach has acknowledged, Emma is an Irish citizen. She carries an Irish passport, and despite the clarity around her identity and citizenship, Emma has been blackguarded and pursued through the courts by a very hostile and belligerent British system.

I appreciate that the Taoiseach has raised these matters in the past with Mrs. May, that he has raised them with the Secretary of State, and that he will do so again. I put it to him, however, that simply raising the issue is not sufficient. We need a resolution to this matter and it needs to happen in a speedy fashion. Emma is very clear in her understanding of the hostility of the Home Office towards her and Jake, her American-born husband. She has also flagged for all of us the reality that that same British system is seeking to deny, frustrate or rob Irish citizens, and therefore EU citizens, of their citizenship rights in the North of Ireland in a post-Brexit scenario. I ask the Taoiseach to do more than politely raise this matter. I invite him to insist that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, moves speedily to introduce the required legislation through Westminster to ensure that Irish citizens living in Ireland are recognised and respected as Irish.

I thank the Deputy. For the part of the Irish Government, we will continue to uphold the Good Friday Agreement in letter and spirit. We will continue to respect the fact that people in Northern Ireland have the right to be British or Irish or both, and accepted as such. For that reason, we continue to respect and confer Irish citizenship on people in Northern Ireland. With that comes citizenship of the European Union and all the European rights that flow from that - the right to travel freely, or to work or study in any part of the European Union. Connected to that come the common travel area rights to live, work, study, access healthcare, housing, education and welfare in Britain and Ireland as though citizens of both. We are very much upholding our obligations in that regard and making sure that nobody in Northern Ireland is left behind, regardless of which community they come from when it comes to accessing those citizenship rights.

As I mentioned, this is an issue on which we have engaged with the British Government. It has agreed to review and resolve the issue in line with the letter and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. This judgment appears to make a distinction between identifying as British or Irish as opposed to being a citizen. In our view, that is a misreading of the Good Friday Agreement. We will continue to seek an outcome of that review. The Tánaiste will raise it with the Secretary of State and I will raise it with the Prime Minister.

The Deputy is suggesting a stronger approach, namely, that I insist and demand. If that approach was effective, the Deputy would be in government in Northern Ireland. That is not the approach that works in the real world. One raises issues with people in a logical, respectful and consistent way.

And get no result.

Insisting and demanding is how one gets nowhere. That is why her party got nowhere in the North.

That is why you got nowhere.