Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To answer Senator Ó Donnhgaile, the impact assessment is being done in both Departments. With regard to the analysis of the implications of Brexit, I was informed by officials from the Northern office at the North-South meeting I attended in Enniskillen that they were doing their own analysis, as we would expect. All Departments are doing that here, as well as in the UK. There are very different perspectives, of course, and implications. I quoted the area of family law just to say the scale of the work that needs to be done in the North with the kind of changes that will be brought about.

There are a number of areas of particular concern to us, including the continuation of the European arrest warrant. That is essential and we hope the UK will continue to engage in Europol, for example, and the broader areas I mentioned such as maintaining the Common Travel Area. It is very important and links to the question about Irish citizens. There are many Irish citizens in the UK and the North in particular. They will maintain the rights associated with being an Irish passport holder but the environment is changing as a result of the UK decision to exit. I certainly take that point.

I was in Belfast recently and I met somebody who told me about the number of people crossing the Border for work in his firm, which is a very big insurance company. He outlined the connections between Derry and Donegal, for example, and the kind of movement that takes place on a daily basis in terms of getting to work without any Border implications. All these issues must be considered in much detail in the context of Brexit because the process has been working so well and has been to the mutual advantage of North and South. We want that to continue. The Common Travel Area predates membership and those rights go back much further. The Border and how it will be managed in the new context will be very much part of ongoing discussion. It is always a priority for us.

I will take up a comment made by the Senator about various North-South operations being at risk. I do not really accept that. The level of engagement North and South, and the intention to engage both at a policing and security level, remains very high on the agenda. It continues to be an absolute priority, whatever the changing context of Brexit. That co-operation is at a certain level and the relationship building has got to a point where there are very strong North-South operations under the new task force established under the A Fresh Start agreement. I see that continuing, and that is the commitment of both police forces. This is in the context of Brexit but that level of co-operation for the security of the island as a whole and our people will need to continue and develop further, as opposed to going backwards anyway, even in the new position.