Mr. Dáithí O'Ceallaigh:

Deputy O'Dowd had a question about the common travel area. I believe it is difficult. However, if the two Governments can between them come up with some sort of reasonable solution and put it into the negotiating framework between the UK and the EU, we might find something for the common travel area that will fly. That is what I think, though I am not certain.

Going back to the point made by Senator Daly, the real issue here is whether the Republic is going to be seen as a backdoor for non-Irish EU citizens to get into the UK. That has to be addressed. During the war, as the Senator rightly said, it was addressed by having a control border for people from this island, North and South, arriving in the UK. In those days, of course, they almost all arrived by boat. There was very little air travel, if any. It might be a little bit more difficult to control now. During the war, people living in Northern Ireland had to carry identity cards, even though they were citizens of the UK. Their identity cards were checked as they went into Great Britain. Politically, there are a lot of people in Northern Ireland who would not like to have that in the future, but that is what happened during the Second World War. It is an issue and one to which nobody can provide a solution at this stage. We just do not know.

I am not so sure that tourism will be a big problem. When the British talk about the migration of EU citizens into Britain, they are talking about settlement rather than tourism. We all know that there are very many countries in which one can travel as a tourist for three months or six months and it does not present the slightest difficulty. The difficulty lies when one wants to settle or, as in the United States, overstay one's welcome. I do not foresee much difficulty on the tourism front. However, if there are controls of some kind on the Border, be it passport controls or whatever, it might be an issue.

The reality is that there are going to be differences on trade that will require regulation, however they are regulated. Likewise, there are going to be differences on migration that will require regulation, no matter how they are regulated. I do not know how this is going to work.

As regards movement across the Border for work purposes, a possible example is Switzerland which has tight rules on working but where, for many years, there were arrangements with the French, the Germans and the Italians whereby people could travel across the border, work freely and return home in the evening. It should be possible to find technical solutions to the question of Northern Ireland people who work for five or six days a week in the South and vice versa. That can be done because it has been done for years in Switzerland.