We have 34 Deputies offering for Questions on Promised Legislation. It is highly unlikely that we will even get to half of them. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, please.

The negative consequences of Brexit are now becoming readily apparent. So too is the need for the Irish protocol, which was hard won, and the necessity for those protections for the Good Friday Agreement, our all-Ireland economy and so on. Unfortunately, the misguided approach by the European Commission last Friday has now been seized on by a section of political unionism; ironically, by the same section of people who championed Brexit despite repeated warnings that Brexit would be bad and damaging for Ireland as a whole. Nonetheless, they now use this misstep by the European Commission as the basis to launch an attack on the protocol to attempt to undermine, to unravel and, they say, to have it removed. The united front that we created was successful and necessary in securing the protections for Ireland in the face of Brexit.

Time is up now, Deputy

I believe we now need calm, cool leadership and that same united front. I invite the Taoiseach to confirm that the Irish protocol and the protections for our island are permanent and firm, will not be unravelled and are not up for grabs.

I accept and believe there is a need collectively all round for calm, cool leadership. Certainly, we responded quickly on Friday evening when the Commission made, in my view, a mistake in terms of dealing with the AstraZeneca vaccination supply issue via the protocol and Article 16. To be fair, as soon as I engaged with the President of the Commission she responded quickly and reversed the decision. To me, it was a demonstration of the goodwill of the Commission. There is a genuine desire on behalf of the Commission not in any way to undermine peace or create any difficulties. It was certainly not a hostile act.

That said, the British Government in its wisdom decided to pursue a relatively hard Brexit and to stay outside the customs union and the Single Market. This has necessitated a co-operation and trade agreement. Thankfully, that has been arrived at, and it means no tariffs and no quotas. However, there was always a necessity to create special provisions for Northern Ireland to underpin the Good Friday Agreement and to facilitate access for Northern Ireland industry farming, business and jobs to the Single Market in Europe as well as to the UK market. It is for the benefit of everyone. It does need some changes. We believe that working collectively between the UK Government, the Commission, ourselves and the Northern Ireland Executive we can moderate the impact of this in terms of basic issues that have been raised on all sides.