Ba mhaith liom féin mo chomhghairdeas a sheoladh go Máirtín Groves ar a cheapachán feasta. I congratulate Mr. Martin Groves on his appointment.

I wish to expand slightly on what Senators Frances Black and Gerard P. Craughwell said about Brexit. I particularly wish to draw the attention of the Leader and other Members to the report issued recently from the policy department for citizens' rights and constitutional affairs at the European Parliament. Its forthright conclusion is that Brexit will have a direct impact on the institutional arrangements of the Good Friday Agreement. That is not political point scoring or academic speculation but the European Parliament and its membership telling us that the vote in England to remove Northern Ireland from the European Union against its will is not just undermining the democratic mandate expressed by the people in the North but will actively and institutionally undermine the precious arrangements enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, of which the people in the North and the rest of the country voted overwhelmingly in favour.

The report goes into considerable detail on the processes and effects Brexit will have on the European Union, Britain and, most importantly in this instance, Ireland. At the core of its findings for Ireland, it concludes that, while the European Union has brought many benefits in terms of funding streams and structural supports, it will have more than just a financial impact on Ireland, as I said, but will also have a significant impact on the Good Friday Agreement. I quote from it:

The impact will be both political, in particular since the Good Friday Agreement – an international agreement – will require alteration, which could lead to instability in the region as well as to tensions between Ireland and the UK, and economic/technical, as the re-establishment of a hard border between the North and the South could provoke a reversal of improvements in cross-border trade.

That lays out the challenge for us very clearly. Through the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and the broader Seanad, we should seek, as advocated by other Senators, to engage as a matter of urgency with the policy department for citizens' rights and constitutional affairs at the European Parliament to discuss and I hope expand on its findings. As an institution, this Seanad should make it very clear that we respect the democratic mandate in the North.

I was disappointed when the Taoiseach did not make it clear in his engagement with the British Prime Minister yesterday that we respected the democratic mandate expressed in the North and that, as an institution, we would and should, as a right and a matter of principle, argue for special status for the North to enable it to remain with the rest of Ireland in the European Union, as applies to other states and arrangements across the Continent.