I am sure the Taoiseach will join with me in sending our sympathies to the Palestinian people on the loss of Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who died this morning. He was a great advocate for peace, stability and a homeland for the Palestinian people. The world is a poorer place for the loss of him.

Joe Biden was elected as the next President of the United States on Saturday last. Mr. Biden's election is good for Ireland in many ways. He is, as we know, proud of his Irish roots and he is, without doubt, a long-standing friend of Ireland. During the presidential election campaign and throughout his time in office, he has acted to promote and protect peace, progress and the Good Friday Agreement. He comes to the office of President at a time of threat from the British Government, with both Brexit and the refusal to honour agreements looming large. The President-elect and both parties in Congress have made clear that there will be no trade agreement with Britain unless the Good Friday Agreement is safeguarded in all of its parts.

The election of Joe Biden has, I believe, the potential to reshape the nature of the Brexit negotiation, particularly with regard to the aggressive and arrogant approach taken by the Tory Government and Boris Johnson to Irish interests. Throughout this process, Tories have actively sought to undermine the Good Friday Agreement and, most recently, Mr. Johnson has played a reckless game by using as a bargaining chip the protection secured for Ireland as part of the withdrawal agreement. Central to this game-playing has been Mr. Johnson's dangerous Internal Market Bill. The latter undermines protections that are absolutely vital to ensuring there will be no reimposition of a hard border on our island, safeguarding the all-island economy and protecting the Good Friday Agreement and our hard-won peace. The recklessness of this Bill is such that even the House of Lords last night voted to strip out powers that would allow Tory Ministers to break international law.

Instead of preparing for an end to the transition period, Mr. Johnson used the smoke and mirrors of this Bill to sow confusion and mistrust in negotiations. Perhaps this was an effort to buy time to see where the chips landed in the US election. Now that election is over and in President-elect Biden, Ireland and the EU negotiating team have a very formidable ally, one who has already impressed upon the British Prime Minister that playing fast and loose with the future of this island simply will not be tolerated. It is time for Mr. Johnson to realise that the best way forward for all of us, including Britain, is to engage in what remains of negotiations in good faith, to respect international law and their agreements. A very necessary first step is that the British Government drop its dangerous internal market Bill.

Throughout the Brexit process, it has been critical to defending Ireland's interests that we have spoken as one. I believe this unified approach in the Dáil has yielded much success and I believe this is how we must proceed as we enter the Brexit endgame because the decisions made in the closing stages of negotiations will have ramifications for years, indeed, for generations, to come. I ask the Taoiseach, therefore, how he plans to work on a cross-party all-of-the-Oireachtas basis over these coming crucial weeks.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for her remarks, and also for the point about unity of purpose across all parties in this House on the crucial issue of Brexit, which I welcome very much indeed. I also take the opportunity to join with the Deputy in expressing our sympathies to the family of the Secretary General of the PLO on his recent passing. I share that sympathy with all in that organisation and those of his loved ones.

We are particularly pleased that President-elect Joe Biden has won the confidence of the American people. It is an outstanding personal mandate - the largest ever in the history of US presidential elections. It is fair to say he is the most Irish of Irish-American presidents since John F. Kennedy. During the campaign, he nailed his colours to the mast in terms of his absolute commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and to the upholding of the Good Friday Agreement, and to his resistance to any measures, mechanisms or developments that would undermine the Good Friday Agreement and peace on the island of Ireland.

In the context of Brexit, fundamentally the negotiations that have been under way for quite some time between the EU and the United Kingdom are ones that, in our view, must yield a sensible outcome, which is a comprehensive free trade agreement without any tariffs or quotas that would limit the damage of Brexit to jobs, the Irish economy, the UK economy and the European economy. Given the enormous negative impact that Covid-19 has had on our economy and on jobs, the last thing that our respective economies need is a second seismic shock via a no-deal Brexit.

I welcome the decision of the House of Lords last evening on the internal market Bill. The talks have intensified over the past week or so and they are at a crucial point. We would like to see an outcome to those talks on the basis of a deal being arrived at and that deal, essentially, then would lead to the neutralisation of the offending clauses of the internal market Bill and strict adherence to the protocol and to the withdrawal agreement because those are international treaties that the UK Government signed up to and that the British Parliament approved of. In our view, the EU was correct in taking infringement action against the UK in respect of those legislative proposals.

The key end objective for Ireland is that the future relationship between the UK and Europe would be a progressive one that has solid foundations that could lead to a fruitful engagement into the future, but, above all, one that would protect jobs and protect our economy. That is our objective. I intend to consult party members. We met last week on related matters. We discussed Brexit and the implications for the operation of the protocol. I believe there were constructive discussions on the protocol in the joint committee over the past while and important progress was made.

I am conscious that the First Minister and deputy First Minister have written to us about the issue of Northern Ireland goods' access to the European Union free trade agreements. That is something that has been raised with us by stakeholders as well. A joint letter has been received from the First Minister and deputy First Minister on practical arrangements around the application of certain aspects of the protocol. Those practical solutions are being explored by the United Kingdom and the European Union to address specific concerns regarding some specific supply chains from Great Britain into Northern Ireland. It is important that all outstanding issues are settled in the coming weeks to give the certainty which businesses and citizens need.

Notwithstanding all of the difficulties that have presented in the course of this process, there is no doubt that a deal is still possible. If good sense is to prevail then there will be a deal but of course we cannot be certain of any of that. That is why I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach today. There are many issues on which the Oireachtas will divide, that is in the nature of our system and of our political differences, which are honestly held, but on this issue, and particularly since the edifice of the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process itself cannot be disrupted, undermined or weakened in any way, it is absolutely essential we act as one. I therefore ask the Taoiseach that we have, as a matter of regular occurrence, briefings and contact not just with Sinn Féin or myself as its leader but with all Opposition parties and with the Houses as a whole because as weeks now start to tick down and as pressure intensifies, it becomes all the more important that full briefings and full information is shared.

I undertake to do that. I am conscious that the Minster for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, is introducing the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020 tomorrow. I believe he has had consultation with party spokespeople across the House and has secured a good degree of consensus and constructive engagement on that Bill, which is crucial for preparedness on Ireland's behalf. I spoke with the President of the European Commission over the weekend in relation to ongoing contacts between the European Union side and the UK side. We had an interesting meeting of the British-Irish Council on Friday and again the Brexit issue was discussed at length. It was interesting that a number of administrations on the British-Irish Council, from the Scottish Government across to the islands and the Welsh Government had very negative attitudes to the internal market Bill and they made that very clear to the Secretary of State, Michael Gove. The level playing field, fisheries and a governance mechanism are still the outstanding issues and progress still has to be made on those three.