Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his interesting and broad-ranging presentation. He mentioned that security and the situations in Syria, Ukraine and Libya had been discussed, but what discussions have there been on internal security? For example, what is the position on the suspension of the Schengen Agreement and what measures are being taken to improve European security?

In December, an agreement was reached with Turkey on stemming the tide of migrants into Europe. A significant amount of money was to be made available to Turkey for that purpose. Although it is not relevant, a backstop was placed on Turkey's ultimate membership of the EU. How is the agreement working in practice? Will the recent bombings in Istanbul impact on the co-operation between Turkey and Europe in terms of broader security and migration?

Would the early holding of a referendum in the UK - it has been mooted for as early as June - be a positive or a negative? It could be positive in light of the visible uncertainty that is being created by Britain's position, as evidenced by a decrease in the value of sterling, which has impacted on Ireland. Given the polls, would it be better to have the referendum sooner rather than later or would a longer run-up to the referendum be more in our interests? I take Deputy Crowe's point about fear being a part of the issue. I am concerned that much of the narrative in the UK describes people as wanting to go and feeling that they would be better off because of sovereignty and "Rule, Britannia" without showing many of the downsides that would result from an exit. From what I have seen in the British media, even the narrative that existed early in the debate about an exit possibly damaging business, foreign direct investment and so forth has changed. It is not as much of an issue in the debate anymore. This is worrying from Ireland's point of view.

The Minister of State commented that treaty change seemed to be off the agenda. That contradicts some of this committee's engagement with the various British representatives who have appeared before us. It was made clear that treaty change would not be off the agenda and would be a necessary part of any successful deal to prevent a Brexit.