Sinn Fein has called for a dedicated constituency in the North to protect the rights of Brexit at a protest outside the Townhall in Enniskillen last Saturday.

Ireland are set to gain two more seats after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union next year while Northern Ireland will lose its three MEPs but it is yet to be confirmed where these seats will go.

Speaking at the Brexit protest on Saturday, Seán Lynch MLA believes that the Irish government allocating the two extra seats to the North will maintain a link between it and the European Union.

“The decision by the British people to exit the EU cannot undermine the hard-won rights and agreements which underpin the Peace Process.

“All sides recognise this. Yet we need more than the words and press statements we have seen to date. We need genuine commitments and active proposals to protect a hard-won peace.

“The Good Friday Agreement is the defining document and agreement which sets out the relationship between the people of this island and the people of these two islands and that includes the people in the North. We must all embrace the reconciliation phase of the Peace Process. To reach out, to listen and to find the common ground. That requires leadership. That requires being able to reach out the hand of friendship and it requires being able to negotiate, agree and deliver political accommodations.”

Mr. Lynch added that he believed the European Union still has a role to play in the Peace Process and it is vital it is continued and that maintaining representation of the North in the European Parliament is a way of securing this relationship.

“Sinn Fein believes that the North can, and should be, a dedicated electoral constituency for the election of two Members of the European Parliament. It is entirely within EU law for the creation of dedicated districts to represent citizens not resident within the State in its democratic institutions. This has been adopted by Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland.

“Sinn Fein believes that the creation of a constituency for the north and the allocation of two European Parliamentary seats to this constituency by the Irish government would go a long way to maintaining the essential link between the north and the EU in terms of rights, responsibilities, investment and representation.”