 This is part of the IAEA's Brexit program, and our work on Brexit is central to our work as an institute, now and certainly into the future. And one part of that program is, I think, particularly important. It's that party leaders from across the island of Ireland come and give their perspective on Brexit. We've already had Column Eastwood of the SDLP, Mike Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party, Michal Martin of Fianna Folle, today we have Jerry Adams, Sinn Féin, in the new year we will have Brendan Howland, we will also have Pascal Donohue, and we will, and you of course have the T-shock. So that is, if you like, a core part of our work. The other elements of our Brexit program will include a range of speakers from the UK and from other parts of the EU 27, bringing their own perspectives here to Ireland, but also enabling an Irish perspective to be shared with them. So that is really a key part of our role, how to shape public and political discussion both here in Ireland and elsewhere. Jerry Adams, I suppose probably doesn't need a lot of introduction, leader of Sinn Féin since 1983, he's been an MP in Parliament, in Britain, in an abstentionist role, and he's been a TD in Dull Air since 2011. We have also seen, obviously, over the last number of years, Sinn Féin repositioning himself to some extent on Europe. When he was here in 2002, he was talking about Sinn Féin's commitment to Europe, but I suppose stressing that it was a different type of Europe that you were advocating, and there's been a very interesting evolution since then. So today we are meeting at a time, a day after, a policy document has been produced by Sinn Féin called The Case for the North to Achieve Designations, Special Stages within the EU. And I know Jerry's remarks are going to touch upon that, and we look forward very much to hearing them. Thank you. Thank you. I want to begin of him out just by paying tribute to Tom, like the Tom and Jerry show. Tom's had a very long and distinguished career, and served served in a number of capacities in the Department of Agriculture, with the Mary Robinson Foundation, and with concern. And I first became, although I knew often, acquainted with him during the Constitutional Convention, which I think was a really good democratic participatory process, and he's also chairing the All-Ireland Civic Dialogue, and I think you're very fortunate to have him as your Director General. So it's good to be with you today, we're going to be dealing with an issue that has profound implications for this island and for all of the people of the island. It's widely accepted now that this is the biggest single challenge that we have faced as an island people in many, many years. However, we are where we are. Let's just deal with it in that hard reality, however we got here, and what matters is where we go to from here, and that's the sense of my remarks, and I've entitled these remarks an Irish solution to an English problem. So there's one basic fact which should not be ignored, and it is ignored by many media commentators and political actors in this part of the island, and also in Britain. And that is that on the 23rd of June, a majority of citizens in the North voted to remain in the European Union. Now all of my adult life I have been told that the majority in the North have to give their consent, and I very clearly have given their consent to remain within the European Union and refused to give it about leaving the European Union. And that's only the second time since partition that a whole range of people, nationalist unionists, Republicans voted together in common cause, and the first time of course was in 1998 when the people of the North and indeed here in the South endorsed the Good Friday Agreement. And not unlike that historic decision almost 20 years ago, the Democratic Unionist Party's world view was rejected. It's recognised that despite many faults that it's in our political and economic self-interest to be part of the European Union. And the European Union has been a partner for peace, has provided substantial political and financial aid over many years, has contributed to greater economic and social progress in the North and in the border region and across the island. And I also believe, and I campaigned in the campaign in the North, that people voted to remain because they recognise that it makes sense that Ireland in its entirety should remain part of the same trading block, as part of the same single market, with the freedom of movement of people and goods and services that that membership guarantees. And many unionists, especially in business, recognise that all island trade, commerce, cooperation and movement is vital to our collective economic capacity and progress. And the unionist political leaders position on these matters is very pragmatic. They embrace those issues which are to our mutual benefit, which is a very straightforward and logical position for them to have, but it's mailed away from what their positions traditionally would have been. So that's the context in which the many challenges posed by Brexit must be assessed and tackled in the coming period, because Brexit isn't just an issue for the North. It's as much an issue for someone down in Kerry as it is for somebody in Derry, for the farmer in Fermanagh or the farmer in Louth, for the business person in Dublin, facing communities along our coasts, the multinationals or the college student in Cork. It will adversely affect our entire island if we let it, and it's vital that we deal with its challenges on that basis. Now the more incidental or indirect consequences are, of course, already having a major impact. Yesterday we produced, as Tom has said, this paper, the case for the North to achieve designated special status within the European Union. I've brought copies with me and if we haven't enough, you can also get it on the Shimpion website, www.shimpion.ie. And what we seek to do here as part of our contribution to this debate is to address the many issues which we think need to be front and center, and it's our contribute, our considered contribution to a very necessary national debate, and we may, as that debate progresses, bring forward other thoughts. This week a report by the German Chambers of Commerce worldwide and the German Irish Chamber of Commerce painted a gloomy picture for this island in the event of Brexit. The report said that the EU member most connected with Britain, that as the EU member most connected with Britain, that we will suffer most from market volatility and unpredictability from the impact of Brexit. The report identifies specific key factors, including foreign direct investment, agri-food and tourism, as well as the likely damaging effect on our energy security. And this week also saw the publication of a central statistics office report, which details the depth of the economic and social links connecting the economy of this state, the north and Britain. And it warns that these connections could be under threat from Brexit. The report titled Brexit Ireland and the UK and Numbers also highlights the economic significance of a number of very labour intensive industries, such as meat and meat preparations and energy products which dominate exports and imports across the Irish Sea. You'd all be very aware that Britain buys 15.6 billion euros of Irish goods. That accounts for almost 14% of all Irish goods exported last year. Imports from Britain come to 18 billion or over a quarter of all goods this republic imported in 2015. And the CESO said that a further 18 billion or 18% of all services exports in 2014 went across the Irish Sea. This state bought in 11.4 billion in services or 10% of all such imports from Britain. And the importance of Britain to tourism here was also highlighted that it accounts for 14% of the 3 million visitors who come here annually. So all of this points up to the interconnectedness and the dangers. And of course we can't divorce the election of Donald Trump from our economic concerns. He has said that it's his intention to reduce corporation tax, so has Theresa May as part of our Brexit strategy. And if these decisions are followed through on, that's obviously going to have an impact here. And from my own sort of personal perspective, when you're out on the ground, particularly in my own constituency of Louton, I'm sure it's the same with other border counties, the challenges are very obvious. Newly's booming. Dundalk Centre's dead. Martin County, one of our TDs in Slego, later in South Dunnegov was telling me that the only remaining shop in Blackland is going to be closed. And the shopkeeper sent us because of Brexit. And the run up to Christmas is a crucial period for most, particularly small businesses or shops that helps them to sustain during the rest of the year. But this fluctuation of currency, which has seen large numbers of people traveling north to buy their Christmas food and drinks and presents, that could change. It's happened many times in the past. It's went back and forth. Sometimes it's better to shop in Dundalk. Sometimes it's better for the shopper. And you can't blame people for the way that they're going to go for what they get cheapest. So the uncertainty involved in all of this isn't good for sustainable business. It isn't good for anyone who's planning and hard to provide long term employment. And Brexit and the return of customs post will exacerbate this situation. I remember speaking to Paddy Malone of Finnegeal and of the Dundalk Chamber of Commerce not long after I was elected to the DAW. And he was explaining to me, and that was really, really refreshing for me to hear a Finnegeal member talking in this way. But he explained the awful impact that partition had in Dundalk. How it cut it off from its natural and Dirland how it devastated the border economy. I think it's improved since. But one thing that we can almost say with certainty that will come out of this Brexit will be the reimposition of an economic border. That's almost certain. Even if the two governments want to avoid it, the European Union will have its own position on this. So jobs are at risk, investments on their threat, our agricultural community faces all sorts of complications. And if you if you just imagine the plight of particularly small farmers, but larger farmers as well, who face the prospect of losing access to farm subsidies, but also face the prospect of trade tariffs outside of the single market. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. And beyond the enormous and unprecedented economic challenges, and the potential of very personal consequences for households. And this is something that I think all of us, even if we weren't involved or even if we weren't born on till afterwards, but the entire post Good Friday agreement, all island institutional and political architecture is under a very serious threat. And that may explain that all island cooperation, integration, the enhanced community, the cultural, the social relationships which have been so massively beneficial to all of the people involved, face all people. Basic human rights provisions are under threat. The Good Friday agreement, it's a historic compromise. It's not a settlement. It's an agreement to a journey. And the outcome of that journey might be United Ireland, or a continuation of the Union with Britain, or indeed some other constitutional arrangement. But whatever its outcome, that's a member and a matter for peaceful and democratic debate. And the integral part of the Good Friday agreement are the safeguards, the legislative measures that are intended to bed in equality of treatment and parody of esteem. It's central to it. I think equality is mentioned 35 times in the agreement. It was never mentioned in any previous agreements through all of the various agreements that were put together. And the agreement specifically states that the North South Ministerial Council must consider the European Union dimension in all relevant matters, including the implementation of EU policies and programs and proposals under consideration in the EU framework. It calls for arrangements to be made to ensure that the views of the council are taken into account and represented appropriately at relevant EU meetings. And the agreement also required that the British government incorporate into the law of the North, the European Convention on Human Rights. And this allows direct access to the courts, remedies for breaches of the convention, including powers of the courts to overrule assembly legislation on grounds of inconsistency, and not also as now at risk because the British government has stated its desire to end its relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights. It also said that it intends to scrub the Human Rights Act. Now, the Human Rights Act 1990, it gives legal effect to the European Convention. And these moves by the British government would be a direct unilateral contravention of the Good Friday Agreement and its human rights provisions. The Irish government as co-garrantor of the agreement must make it crystal clear that it will not accept any attempt by the British government to walk away from its commitments and needs to raise these issues with our partners in the European Union. I have to say, given the failure of our government to hold the British government to account on aspects of the Good Friday Agreement and given its own failure to fulfill obligations on to the Good Friday Agreement, many people in the north are just a fably concerned about the future of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements. So our focus must be to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement and its entirety and in every aspect must remain intact. I want to deal if I can just with what our changing attitudes within unionism. I'm not suggesting that the unionists of a common united Ireland, there's patently that isn't the case. But the DUP opposed the Good Friday Agreement. Nigh at pragmatically works the Good Friday Agreement. They now endorse Brexit, a position which people rightly rejected. And I think it's safe to say that there are many within unionism who are assessing their own sense of all of this. And that isn't to say that they don't see themselves as British or that they have given up their affection or their support for the link with Britain. But I do think that many have been challenged upon to their economic futures, the severing of ties with the EU and the potential implications for the island of Ireland. No unionist politician, for example, has been arguing for a hardening of the border. Not one. On the contrary. And when you contrast us with the traditional unionist position, which for years advocated a frontier type status, we now see Geoffrey Donaldson on the front page of the Irish Times putting the case for a special deal for the island of Ireland. We see the First Minister, Arlene Foster, arguing against a hard border. And in our view, Sinn Féin's view, our collective objective in the coming months and years has to be about securing the position of the island of Ireland within the European Union in line with the democratically expressed wishes of the people in the north. Now that means very openly, very meaningfully exploring avenues in which Ireland and its entirety can remain in the EU. It's not about a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit. It's about an alternative to Brexit. And that's not beyond our collective wisdom. We've also argued that a referendum on Irish unity should not be ruled out. And I know there are some who will say we want Irish unity, but look, it's too early. We don't want it now. But that's another issue. There are also unique arrangements in place in the EU. For example, Denmark is an EU member, yet Greenland is outside the Union. Greenland still receives European funding. 25 overseas countries and territories have a special relationship with the EU, without being members in their own right, and they benefit from access to the single market and other entitlements. Other forms of integration include the Eurozone and Schengen, where most member states participate, while others do not. And there are non-member states using the Euro and participating in their own arrangements. There's the customs union. There's the free trade agreement with Turkey. There's a single market European economic area with, I can't pronounce its name, Lechensdagen, Norway, Iceland, and Northern Cyprus in the event of a separate reunification will be fully integrated into the EU as per the Cyprus Accord. The separate states in the European Parliament are already allocated on the basis of the population of the island of Cyprus, not merely the de facto state. And it's an arrangement that we have to consider. Some of these variations, and the EU has, as I've just indicated, been very flexible about how it arranges its affairs. We also have this conundrum. Those of us who hold Irish passports and who are in the north, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, that means everybody born on the island of Ireland. We also have citizenship of the European Union as well. So how do we deal with the conundrum that the north has dragged out against its will of the European Union? But yet we remain, those of us who have Irish passports, how are we given our rights as European citizens as we are entitled to? So there are a plethora of possibilities, of rearrangements, of ideas, of brainstorming that we can do. And I've said this to the T-Shock many times. We shouldn't be waiting to see what the British are going to do, or be mass marazed. I sit in the dial chamber and I hear the other leaders speculating about what's happening within the British government. We should be looking at what we need to do. What we need to do. My long experience of dealing with the British, one thing they're very, very good at, they're very good at looking at what they perceive to be their national interest. We're not so good at that. We're too boxed in, we're too blinkered by the parameters of this state. And this is a real opportunity to think all island without any necessary change to the constitutional position at this time. So it's about setting out alternatives, constitutional, political, other ways that promote our national interest. And we would argue that that should be about securing designated special status for the North. To a certain extent in the joint letter agreed with Martin McGinnis, Arlene Foster is looking for special status across a range of issues. Now, of course, she's looking for this special status outside of the European Union. And that is the current position also of our government. We're arguing for something different. It's for that special status within the European Union. Can the Irish state put this position? Yes. It has the right to do so under Article 48 of the Treaty of the European Union. I think it's obliged to do so to bring forward whatever propositions are deemed as a result of engagement and trying to get a consensus on the island. Now, there are also, obviously, within some of the European states, a view that they need to punish the British, or at least not make this easy for them in case that starts the breakup of the European Union. And I would argue very, very strongly that Tom described her, Shindhvii's position has evolved. And we did that very democratically within our party and discussed these matters out and brought it to our Irish and and so on. But there is a disillusionment with hundreds of millions of citizens with the European project. It's right across the entire Union. And what we would argue for is that needs to be taken on board because a third strand in this assessment of what's going to happen come Brexit has to be about a new European Union, a social Union. It means proposing and initiating reforms that would get us there. The EU has become very, very removed from citizens. It's no longer seen by many as a vehicle for cooperation. It's become associated with division, with elites, with power, with control. It's a two tier European Union. You know, the insistence that the EU, by the EU that the people of this state had the shoulder, the burden of private banking debt and the way two governments acquiesced to that, the appalling attitude towards the people of Greece, the failure to deal with compulsion with the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean. You know, we just take it for granted now that, you know, 324 people were drowned about four Mondays ago. And we who are, you know, a nation of and got more on the coffinships, the European Union hasn't dealt with that huge humanitarian crisis. The response to the emergencies that are arising out of the conflicts, indeed, the involvement of some European states in the conflict in Syria and Libya have all undermined public confidence in the EU. And that's going to be difficult to rectify, but in my view, it's not impossible. A social European Union can't be built. And instead of placing economic interests at the core, we should be placing citizens at the core, cherishing the citizens. And we need to move away from a model that's overly bureaucratic, distant from the needs of citizens and lacking any empathy. We also need to be mindful that there are 28 states and one has decided to leave. So our place is in Europe. But the EU needs to change. And we would argue that we need to have more control over how economic policy is decided by member states that decided here, not in Brussels, not in London, decided unaccountable to people in the North and South because you can always sack your politicians. If they're making decisions that are not in your interest, you can sack them. You can't do that with the elites within the European establishment. And we also think that a European convention should be established with a clear mandate to identify powers which could be returned to member states. We think there should be a reduction in the power of the Commission to propose legislation unless requested to do so by the Council or the Parliament. We think the secrecy surrounding the European Council should be lifted. And we're very, very opposed to the creation of any European army or any initiative aimed at increasing the militarization of the EU. And we're very much about defending Irish neutrality. So we'll continue to work in our modest way with others across Europe to enhance the positives in the European Union to combat the negatives and to hold the institutions to account. We really want to make them more focused on delivering prosperity and safeguarding the rights of citizens. So it's also going back to my opening remarks. It's about trying to figure out how we develop a new Ireland from this. Because one of the outcomes of the Brexit vote and this is demonstrated by the vote is that citizens were able to step outside the barriers erected by partition. For that one day sectarian politics was made redundant. We have a particular model for a new Ireland, a Republican form of government but that's up to the people to decide and we're happy to put our views on the table and to argue them out and to take on board the opinions of others. So we need to appreciate that things are changing but also that we're now more multicultural than at any time in our history. There are people here from all parts of the world who enrich us as an island people. We need of course to acknowledge the genuine concerns of unionists as well as other sections of society. We need to be very, very open to listening to unionism, to engaging with them, to arguing, to debating with them and we need to find out from them what they mean by their sense of Britishness. And the proposition we're putting doesn't infringe upon that. We're not looking, I want to see Ireland reunited yesterday. We're not looking for that out of this current situation. We're looking for defensive reasons to protect our sounds across the island but also for more offensive reasons to try and build beyond the divisions of the past. First minister Sturgeon from Scotland in her address to the shanad here last week, she said, we are living in unprecedented times and those unprecedented times require imagination, open minds and fresh thinking. So in my view, the T-shock should follow Nicolaus Sturgeon's example. And rather than being mesmerized by what the British London government, the English government in fact, might be going to do, he needs to develop an all island vision. I welcome the establishment of the all island, the all island civic dialogue. When we first proposed the need for a national forum, it was dismissed. And, you know, it's now a matter of record to the T-shock's introduction of that idea to the DUP leader was clumsy, it was less than sure-footed. But I do think the initiative, and it's going to move north, I do think it does provide the potential to democratize an all island approach which takes on board the democratic will of the people in the north without changing the current constitutional position. And I think we need to think all island and act on that in part of it. As Ms Sturgeon said, these are unprecedented times. They require imagination, open minds and fresh thinking. Shin my marriage, go to Morgoth.