It is difficult to ask about the Brexit process because the matter is so complex and people are in the "tunnel" - the word of the moment. Lord knows what will come out of that tunnel but we wish those involved in the talks well. If, as those in the media seem to be indicating. it may return something similar to the deal which was originally envisaged almost two years ago and which has been discussed in this House and broadly supported, that would be welcome.

I have one specific question regarding the restoration of Stormont in this process and how that fits in with what, come what may, will be a complex period of weeks, months and, probably, years. The Green Party, An Chomhaontas Glas, and the Green Party in Northern Ireland constitute an all-island organisation. For many years, we have been arguing that the arrangements and institutions at Stormont are not fit for purpose. I refer, for example, to the arrangement whereby my colleague, Clare Bailey, MLA, when entering the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, was forced to declare that whether she was a unionist, a nationalist or whatever. Ms Bailey grew up on the Lower Falls Road. She then moved to a mixed estate in County Antrim, attended an integrated school and later spent a lot of time in Holland and elsewhere. I cannot remember what exactly she put down when she was forced to answer that question. She probably referred to herself as internationalist, a feminist, an ecologist and an activist. The structures that obtain, including the declaration for Members of the Assembly, the mandatory coalition arrangements and the petition of concern, should be redesigned in the coming months if we can avoid a no-deal Brexit. I hope that Stormont will be restored but it should not be only restored to what it always has been. We should look on this as an opportunity to evolve the institutions.

Deputy Adams, speaking at an event I attended in the audiovisual room last week, made a seminal point that the Good Friday Agreement, by its nature, provides for a range of different consents. One of the difficulties in the 1,000 days when the assembly at Stormont has not been sitting is that the people who vote for my colleague, Clare Bailey, MLA, have found no space to contribute to the debate. In the context of whatever deal is about to be done, we need a much broader sense of what the consent is rather than it being just a nationalist or a unionist consent. The Tánaiste was in Belfast talking to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland yesterday. I would imagine it will be next to impossible to have Stormont restored in advance of next Monday. That will give rise to its own complications for politics in the North. In advance of whatever deal is done, we need to think of how we will contribute to the evolution of the Good Friday Agreement and the multiple consents that are needed to make that deal work.

Certainly, everyone in government is keen to facilitate and assist the parties in re-establishing the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Julian Smith, MP, and the Tánaiste have been working on that for weeks and months. Indeed, as recently as last night, the Tánaiste was in Stormont and he briefed me on the state of play this morning.

We are very much of the same thinking as Deputy Eamon Ryan in that restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive should not be restoration of business as usual. We have seen the Good Friday Agreement evolve previously with, for example, the advent of St. Andrews Agreement and the Stormont House Agreement. It can evolve again because we want to ensure the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Executive and the North-South bodies work better. We also want to ensure that if restoration occurs, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive will be sustainable and will not break down again after three months or six months if the big parties fall out with each other. Among the changes that need to be part of our consideration are those relating to the petition of concern, which had been used in a way that was never anticipated when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, for example, to block marriage equality even though the vast majority of those in the assembly and of the people in Northern Ireland want that to be legal, just as it is in the rest of the UK and in the rest of Ireland.

Deputy Eamon Ryan put his finger on a significant issue, which is that fact that the Good Friday Agreement requires assembly members to designate themselves as unionist, nationalist or other. People even find the term "other" pejorative because it certainly does not describe that growing identity or centre ground of people in Northern Ireland who see themselves as being both British and Irish and who often vote for parties such as the Green Party and the Alliance Party. One of the real flaws in double majorities in the system of cross-community consent is not only that it allows one community or even one party within that community to have a veto but that it discounts and reduces to nothing the votes of those who are designated as others. There is a growing number of people who vote Alliance or Green and who consider themselves to be British and Irish, perhaps Northern Irish. That is something that has developed as a flaw. It is something of which I am very aware. My thinking in that regard would be similar to that of Deputy Eamon Ryan. As is always the case, however, any reforms or changes must be agreed by the big parties as well as the small parties in Northern Ireland.

I thank the Taoiseach for those comments. I look forward to seeing how this evolves along the lines he suggested. In the first instance, we should start with those bigger parties. When I say that the centre has a role to play, it is not a threat, it is not a power grab and it is not me outlining a nationalist position. I am not declaring it that way. What I am doing is recognising that the system was not working and that there is a chance for us to change it for the better. Obviously, that will be difficult. It would be helped by the fact that even if there is a deal this week or in the coming weeks, the talks will not end there. There are still probably years of negotiations ahead in respect of trade and other arrangements. My case is that it should not only be about trade. We should, as the Taoiseach stated, be looking at the evolving process. My party had suggested the establishment of a constitutional convention as a way of doing that up North. I was thinking earlier that another way of proceeding might be to use the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. We should start examining that matter in order that we might start thinking, not only about the current fix and the difficulties that exist but also about how we can bring all parties in the North on board in the context of a different and better assembly.

Deputy Eamon Ryan is correct in his assessment that the talks will not end this week - or even this month - with an agreement. It is merely the end of the current phase of Brexit. What will happen, if we have an agreement this week or this month, is that we will then begin discussions on the future economic relationship and the future security relationship - the free trade agreement that we will build between the UK and the EU. Among our priorities in that regarding will be political co-operation, security co-operation and, in particular, trade. East-west trade between Britain and Ireland is so important, particularly to our farmers and agrifood sector. We want to make sure that the free trade agreement will allow for tariff-free, quota-free trade to continue between Ireland and Britain. Separately, there will be bilateral discussions between the British and Irish Governments, most likely within the structure of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

That is where we can build on some of the questions the Deputy raised and see how we could make those changes to modernise the arrangements in Northern Ireland. That cannot be done, however, without the support of the parties in Northern Ireland, particularly those that carry the most votes.