Member's statement: Brexit Referendum: Ten-year Anniversary
Member's statement by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 23 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Brexit Referendum: Ten-year Anniversary
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5636724
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Catastrophic, kamikaze economics, politically toxic — there is no other way to describe the Brexit debacle. Yet, 10 years on, those in the Chamber who continue to cheerlead are burying their heads in the sand. They tell us that they have not yet got the Brexit they wanted: I can only assume that means that it is not enough of an unmitigated disaster for them. Last week, the London School of Economics was emphatic. It said that there is now conclusive evidence that Brexit has been an economic failure. I and others predicted in 2015 that that would be the case, and the greater number of citizens agreed with us. Now there is even greater opposition to our exclusion from the European Union. The fallout from Brexit is a reality that is being felt hard by workers and families across the North daily, and that is illustrated in evidence sessions that we have received in the Economy Committee. In one, we learned that our electricity bills here are now higher as a result of Brexit. In another, we heard that one skills programme had lost £40 million of investment in a year due to the loss of European funding. Brexit has also poisoned our political process. It has destabilised power-sharing and created a deep political fault line. However, Brexit has also been a political game changer. More and more citizens are now looking beyond the catastrophe of Brexit and the chaotic Westminster politics that brought it about. The fact is that Brexit has brought a positive focus to the democratic logic of self-determination and constitutional change in Ireland. There is a way to remove the negative and enduring legacy of Brexit. Irish unity provides that option. Therefore, it is time to widen participation in the debate. The term of Ireland's presidency of the European Council provides an important opportunity to do so. The Irish and British Governments should begin planning for the constitutional change that will reunite this country and create a pathway back into the European Union for us all.
341 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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