Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I definitely would, I thank the Chairman and appreciate that.

I am not sure why the Deputy thinks that we are very late in the day with regard to this, given that I have described in detail the amount of work that has been done by the Department with regard to the convention that started at the beginning of 2018. I have said a number of times on the record that I travelled to London last year to meet my then counterpart, a lovely lady called Esther McVey. We both had similar intentions, which was that after what hopefully would have been a deal, that is, an exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union with a ratified agreement, we were going to have as part of Protocol 20 a bilateral arrangement as regards the reciprocity of both of our social security arrangements. That deal was signed on 1 February and comes into play once it is ratified here, hopefully on Thursday, with regard to the Irish contingency. It is currently in a 21-day resting period in the United Kingdom. When that deal is ratified by the UK Parliament and Irish Parliament, which will most likely happen on 19 or 20 March, there will be no need for this legislation because the commitments that we made to each other as the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland will come into legally binding force. I am preparing this legislation on the basis that, maybe, something will happen in the United Kingdom which will not allow it to ratify that deal within the 21-day period. I believe we are being incredibly prudent.

I have also discovered since drafting this particular section 11 of this Bill that I really do not need to draft the legislation to ratify that because I have within our gift currently a regulation that we could sign on the basis that the United Kingdom is in the process of ratifying the Bill or the bilateral agreement, as both it and we are currently doing. We could extend the legal arrangements that we currently have until that Bill is ratified. This legislation is really in the case of absolutely everything else and throwing the bucket and the kitchen sink at it going wrong. The intention for many months of both the United Kingdom's Parliament - I am now working with the second Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, a lovely lady called Amber Rudd - and our own Department and Government has been that we will do absolutely everything to ensure that the reciprocal arrangements that Irish people and British people have enjoyed in each other's nations for donkey's years will continue on and after 29 March and that is what we are going to ensure.

The Deputy mentioned that there were some doubts legally. I am unsure from where he got that information.