ARLENE, KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE GOOD FRIDAY DEAL!

DUP leader threatens stability of peace accord to push Brexit agenda but Taoiseach fires warning

LEO Varadkar has fired a stern warning to Arlene Foster that the Good Fri- day Agreement is not up for re-negotiation after her claim that the peace deal isn’t ‘sacrosanct’.

The Taoiseach said the 1998 accord between the UK and Irish governments cannot be changed by one political party or government after the DUP leader’s controversial comments yesterday.

Ms Foster shocked most politicians across the political divide by suggesting that the terms of the historic pact could be altered in an effort to iron out a suitable Brexit deal.

In inflammatory remarks made at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, she claimed that in the

context of Brexit, changes could be made to the 1998 agreement that brought an end to decades of violence in Ireland.

Mr Varadkar, however, said the GFA was not up for negotiation in the Brexit talks. Addressing the Dáil, he said: ‘The Government stands by the GFA and we will defend its primacy. We see our role as the Irish Government as the codefenders of that agreement.

‘It is not a piece of British legislation, it is an international agreement between the British and Irish governments, as well as a multiparty agreement among the various parties.

‘While it may be factually correct to say that the Good Friday Agreement, just like any international treaty, could be changed, it can only be changed with the agreement of British and Irish governments and can only be changed with the consent of the people of Northern Ireland and indeed across cross-community consent.

‘It is not something that can be changed by any one political party or by any one government. It is certainly, as far as this Government is concerned, the Good Friday Agreement is not up for negotiation in these talks over Brexit.’

DUP leader Ms Foster was roundly criticised for the comments which were branded ‘reckless’, ‘unacceptable’ and ‘wrong’ yesterday by parties across the political divide.

Even President Michael D Higgins made a rare political intervention following the comments.

In an article published in the London Telegraph yesterday, Ms Foster said, ‘It has been deeply frustrating to hear people who

‘It’s fundamentally stupid’

voted remain and in Europe talk about Northern Ireland as though we can’t touch the Belfast Agreement [GFA]. Things evolve, even in the EU context.

‘There has been a lot of misinterpretation, holding it up as a sacrosanct piece of legislation.’

The GFA is an internationally binding peace treaty that is registered with the United Nations, and cannot be changed unilaterally.

In attempt to clarify her remarks, Ms Foster claimed they had been ‘blown out of all proportion’.

‘What I’ve said is there has been a misinterpretation of the Belfast Agreement. People love to look at the Belfast Agreement as the reason why their arguments should be put to the fore,’ the unionist leader said in an apparent dig at Ireland and the EU’s approach to Brexit talks.

Brussels and Dublin have pointed to the peace deal as a basis for ensuring there is no hard border post Brexit.

‘All I’m saying is that if you’re talking about the Belfast Agreement, it’s important that you remember at the heart of that is the consent principle, which very clearly says that Northern Ireland is part of the UK until such time as the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise,’ Ms Foster added in comments made to RTÉ.

‘Now, we don’t hear much commentary around that from either nationalism, or indeed the European Union either.’

But Ulster Unionist Party leader Robin Swann claimed Mrs Foster’s comments undermined that principle of consent, and argued that the treaty provides the best protection for unionists.

‘It undermines the principle of consent, and that is the foundation that ensures Northern Ireland remains part of the UK. To start messing about with the fundamental building blocks of the Belfast Agreement is dangerous at the best of times,’ he said. ‘But in the current situation where we are, as regards to Brexit, I just think it’s fundamentally stupid.’

He argued that the comments were ‘strategically short-sighted’, adding: ‘The reality is that the principle of consent is what binds us to the United Kingdom, it is the best settlement for unionists and should be sacrosanct.’

But speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, ex-UUP leader and one of the peace deal’s architects, David Trimble, said there was truth to Ms Foster’s comments – and then accused Ireland and the EU of breaching the agreement. ‘The Irish and the European Union are operating in breach of the Good Friday Agreement,’ he said. ‘They’re trying to bring about a united Ireland with this rubbish about Brexit, the backstop and the rest of it, putting Northern Ireland in a special economic zone. They’re trying to bring about what is a constitutional change to the status of Northern Ireland without invoking the principle of consent.’

The row is now shaping up to become one of the greatest challenges to the peace deal since it was signed 20 years ago.

President Higgins weighed in on

the debacle to reiterate the importance of the GFA and its basis in international law. ‘The Good Friday Agreement is an internationally lodged agreement, and I think the reason why it hasn’t featured up until now is that it was taken for granted that it was one of those immoveable pieces,’ he said. ‘It’s a totally different circumstance if one was to say that one was going to resile from commitments made internationally and lodged, after all, at the United Nations.’

Ms Foster was strongly criticised by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who said: ‘Such comments are not just unacceptable and wrong; I believe they are in fact dangerous and reprehensible.

‘They reveal a reckless disregard for the peace process, for prosperity and for progress. It should be remembered, of course, that Arlene Foster left the Ulster Unionist Party in 2003 because of her opposition to the Good Friday Agreement, and it appears that the DUP leader has learnt nothing in the 15 intervening years.’

Some pundits have speculated that Ms Foster is actively trying to put it up to British prime minister Theresa May, whose government depends on the support of the DUP. New proposals by Mrs May to break the Brexit deadlock and avoid a hard border in Ireland have apparently been shot down by the unionist party.

At the Tory conference, Mrs May had reportedly proposed new plans to the Conservatives that would keep the whole of the UK aligned to the rules of the customs union – with some regulatory checks in the Irish Sea – until another solution is found. This was a counter-offer to the EU’s bid to keep just Northern Ireland in the customs union – a position unacceptable to the DUP because it separates the North from the rest of the UK.

And after a meeting with Mrs May yesterday, Ms Foster tweeted: ‘Meeting with Prime Minister just ended. NO border in the Irish Sea will ever be acceptable to unionists throughout the UK... regulatory or otherwise.’

‘She left UUP due to opposition to deal’