Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the common travel area, I am extremely grateful to both academics for addressing the common travel area. Like Irish neutrality, it is not quite as straightforward as we would like to think. This is something this committee needs to look at in far more detail because there is an assumption that there are rights that exist between Irish citizens and UK citizens but which are not underpinned in any law. As we move forward, the common travel area will become an extremely important issue for some 30,000 people that cross the Border on a daily basis to go to work in both directions.

I mention the point made by Professor Phinnemore on the person from County Armagh holding an Irish passport who goes to Paris for medical treatment - who pays? For example, we know that if I am on holiday today in Northern Ireland and I have an accident, I am covered for medical purposes but if I am in Dundalk and have an accident and am brought by ambulance to a hospital in Newry, they will demand payment from me straight away as a private citizen. This common travel area that we constantly hear people talking about is crucial. It is a critical part of the Good Friday Agreement and a post-Brexit world. We have to allocate time at this committee to examine that in detail. I ask that we do that and perhaps Professor Phinnemore and Dr. Hayward would come back on that matter because I think it is a massive issue.