Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I just want to acknowledge the presence of Every Child Matters and the presence of children with additional needs. They are very welcome to the House. Hopefully, I will get a chance to say hello to them later.
The Minister for foreign affairs, Deputy McEntee, has been in constant contact all weekend with various parties and with the Northern Ireland Secretary of State. I have been in contact with the British Prime Minister. We are well aware of the legislative framework governing actions that the Northern Ireland Secretary of State can or could take but the context has to be one where whatever decisions are taken ensure a pathway towards trust and reconciliation between both communities on the ground. Otherwise, decisions can get subject to subsequent legal actions as well, as we saw. The contact will continue. It is fair to say that a consensus has not emerged, clearly, in terms of a pathway forward. People are mindful of the different perspectives and stances that people have on this current situation. We may regret - I certainly do - that because of the decision, we find ourselves in this position but our collective objective now has to be to find a way out of it that avoids the terrible trauma we witnessed in the past. It would be a singular failure of progress in Northern Ireland if we were to witness something similar to that now.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29