Taoiseach's plans forall-island forum welcomed

Mr Eastwood said that defending the interests of people on this island, North and South, requires cross-party and cross-community co-operation.

He said: “The SDLP welcomes the Taoiseach’s all-island initiative on Brexit. The day after the Referendum, Mark Durkan MP first proposed an All-Party Forum to consider the wide ranging implications of Brexit on the people of Ireland.

“The disastrous approach of the British Government to this challenge makes that proposal all the more critical in order to establish coherence and consensus on an all-island response. Theresa May’s government risks sinking an axe of simplicity into the layered complexities of the Irish political process.

“We are now desperately in need of an Irish solution to a European problem.”