The British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has been accused of saying that a no-deal Brexit in Ireland would only affect a few farmers with turnips in the back of their trucks. Some people might say that is just Tories being Tories, but it does give an insight into the ignorance at the heart of the British bad faith when it comes to Brexit and the North of Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement is shredded and gutted. The Executive has collapsed. This has happened at a time of a cost-of-living crisis and while 44,000 people are currently on housing waiting lists in the North of Ireland, 270,000 people there are on hospital waiting lists for longer than a year and 670,000 people are in poverty in the Six Counties.

This would not be acceptable in any other democratic society in the world. The North-South Ministerial Council, which was one of the reasons nationalists voted for the Good Friday Agreement, has not met for nearly a year. There is now mounting evidence that confirms that British collusion was involved in the multiple killings of Irish people, North and South, but yet the Tories are ploughing ahead with legislation which would indemnify murderers and securocrats responsible for these killings. On the issue of the human right to life, which is a devolved issue under the Good Friday Agreement, today Brandon Lewis will announce the imposition of some of the most extreme law in Europe onto the North of Ireland. This will be done against the will of the people of the North. It will see thousands of lives lost in the North over the coming years.

The Tories and the DUP have totalled the Good Friday Agreement and the democratic rights of the people of the North. The Government is a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. It is safe to say that the Government is not co-guaranteeing anything at the moment. We believe it is beyond time that the Government fulfil its responsibilities. The Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty. The Government should be exhausting all international legal avenues to see its implementation; it should seek the suspension of MLA salaries while the Executive is suspended; it should harness the full extent of White House and EU power to put pressure on the British Government; it should seek the reconstitution of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference; it should at this stage be pushing for joint authority while Stormont is collapsed; and it should seek a legally defined role for the Assembly in the North to activate an Irish unity referendum. I welcome the stronger language of the Minister for Foreign Affairs this week. It was a breath of fresh air because the British do not understand subtlety. We also need actions. What actions will the Government take to defend the Good Friday Agreement and the democratic rights of the people of the Six Counties?

I do not know whether the Secretary of State, Liz Truss, made those remarks or not. It is obviously for her to confirm or deny them. However we all know that Brexit, even with the deal that we have had, has affected people. It has affected businesses adversely with many consequences, although I think without the deal we have it would have been much worse. In respect of legacy, the Irish Government is very concerned about the proposals that have been put forward by the British Government in regard to legacy, amnesty and the non-prosecution of people who were involved in killing people in Northern Ireland, whether it was in terrorist offences or people from the security services. We had the Stormont House Agreement. We think that agreement should be honoured in regard to legacy. We are very much of the view that whatever is done in regard to legacy in Northern Ireland, should be done with the support of the parties in Northern Ireland and crucially should involve consultation with and the agreement of the families and victims groups. This is because many people are still grieving years and decades later because of what was done to them by paramilitaries and security forces. It is they who should be at the centre of this.

In regard to the actions that we are taking, the Government is acting on two tracks. As part of the European Union we are trying to negotiate with the United Kingdom in regard to the protocol, trying to come up with solutions that maintain the protocol in place and the benefits that arise from it, but in some way help to assuage and ease the concerns that unionists and some business people in Northern Ireland have. We are working on that track in terms of how to modify and improve the protocol and trying to respond to some of the concerns that have been raised.

In particular, led by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, we are trying to engage with the British Government and the parties in Northern Ireland with a view to forming an Executive. Getting the Assembly up and running is very important and does not require an Executive to be formed. That should happen. An Executive should happen also. I was involved for three years in negotiations around Brexit. What was missing was a functioning Northern Ireland Executive, a First Minister and a deputy First Minister who could speak on behalf of Northern Ireland. What we have now is five or more parties, each with its leader, each just speaking for his or her party or maybe for one community or part of one community. As nobody in Northern Ireland has the authority to speak on behalf of Northern Ireland, it is important that we have an Executive in place in order that the Executive, First Minister and deputy First Minister can be involved and can be across any changes that might happen to the protocol. That is currently absent. That is really regrettable. The decision not to participate in the Executive is entirely down to one party.

On the legacy issue, Aontú published a Bill last week, the commission of investigation (collusion by British state forces) Bill 2022, which would constitute a commission investigation into British collusion into the murders of Irish people North and South. With the mounting evidence that exists we believe it is important that a commission investigation be held. There has never been a comprehensive investigation in regard to British collusion in this country. Victims and survivors are entitled to know. Many of these families are getting older. Time is running out for them. There is an urgency about this. Our Bill would empower a commission of investigation to compel witnesses in the South of Ireland. It would also have the power to take evidence from outside of this jurisdiction. It would have the power to consider information that has been published in state investigations internationally. It could help to fill key gaps in the understanding of collusion. Should a similar Bill be constituted in Stormont, it would allow for witnesses to be compelled on the island, North and South. It is time to go beyond just those two steps of negotiating through the EU and negotiating on Stormont directly with the British Government. We need to pull other levers that are in our ability to solve this. I encourage the Tánaiste to support the Aontú Bill on the commission of investigation.

There has been the Smithwick tribunal of which Deputy Tóibín will be aware. I have not seen the Bill on the commission of investigation so we will certainly examine that when we have had a chance to see it. There are a number of files and investigations still open, as the Deputy knows, in regard to offences that occurred in the past, as well as collusion.