Debate contribution: EU Office in Belfast

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 12 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

12 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

EU Office in Belfast

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5312049

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am pleased to be speaking again about the old specialist subject a decade on from Brexit, the thing that generated all the consequences that have flowed from it, as well as this debate. Indeed, we in the SDLP are not just pleased to be speaking about it but are flattered to be debating something that we put in the 'Our European Future' policy paper that we brought out in late 2024 and have advocated consistently. Imitation is, of course, the sincerest form of flattery, so we are pleased to support the motion, having put down similar ourselves. Let us deal with the short term and the immediate term first. An EU office in Belfast is not some Trojan Horse for rejoining the EU. Since we are on that subject, however, I am unabashed about saying that I want to rejoin the EU. In practical terms, the only route to rejoining the EU is via a new Ireland, which is what I and my party are passionate about. Even if Members are agnostic on that question, however, and really do not want it to happen, they should still and can still be up for the EU Commission opening an office in Belfast: a European External Action Service office, as Mr Dickson so correctly depicted it. Why? Because Northern Ireland has a unique status. The questions of citizenship and re-accession clearly do not apply to everybody in the Chamber or in Northern Ireland, but what applies everybody in the Chamber and everybody whom we represent, be they a business owner or an individual, is the fact that we are bound by a corpus of EU law — I support that, as do other parties in the Chamber — under the protocol, now called the Windsor framework, which was necessary to protect us from a hard border on the island and gives us — I think that I was the first person to use the phrase in the Chamber — "dual market access", a critical economic lever. I know that some people do not agree that that exists. They might give us an economic analysis of why the North has done better economically than Britain for the entire period of divergence when we have had this awful thing called "dual market access" and Britain has lost the deep access to the single market that we have. In the short term, what would an EU office do? It would enable us to better manage being subject to a corpus of EU law that troubles lots of people in the Chamber. It does not trouble me in principle — it is a good thing — but I understand and acknowledge that there are specific issues that we need to work through for businesses and individuals. A more practical way of doing that, rather than having to convene or press representation — by the way, we also think that we should have representation in the European Parliament — is by being able to engage, as representatives and trade bodies, with the Commission office in Belfast. I genuinely do not see how that can be ideologically objectionable. I am struck by Members on the opposite side of the Chamber who still roar and get frustrated about the consequences of Brexit. I acknowledge that they do not like the consequences of Brexit. I do not demean that. I do not like the fact that Brexit happened in the first place. It is why I am in the Chamber. If I am annoying you now, it is Brexit's fault, because I would not be here were it not for Brexit. Like a lot of people, I would not be considering and advocating a new Ireland back in Europe in the way that I am now were it not for Brexit. I have always believed in it, but the urgency would not be quite the same. In the longer term, it is about getting back inside the European Union. I am unapologetic about the fact that I think that Northern Ireland's best future is in a new Ireland back inside the European Union. The events of the last couple of weeks, as big actors on the world stage prove themselves ever more determined to flout international law and to use force and the threat of force to get their way, make the case for countries that believe in multilateralism, international law and a rules-based system to work together to the mutual benefit of their citizens. That is what the European Union is all about. It is, as Hume said, the greatest peace project in human history. I want us back in there, not just at the margins, albeit with a useful set of rights, but at the heart of it. I do not want to be in a situation where big bullies on the world stage can simply throw their weight around. That is exactly what is happening. We even see people on this continent and in the UK having to bend the knee to that grotesque villain and clown in the White House. I want us, as part of a new Ireland, to be back inside a multilateral system so that Europe does not have to be bullied by the big actors on the world stage. In the short term, before we get there, let us be practical and pragmatic and make the rules work better for all the people whom we represent. Even if you have no interest in ever rejoining the EU, surely you want the rules to work better. Surely you want us to have better access to decision makers inside the Commission. Surely you want the businesses of constituents whom you represent to have better, quicker access and answers. That would be delivered by Commission representation in Belfast. I struggle to understand how people who say that the rules are terrible do not want to make them slightly more practical.

986 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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