Mr. Richard Neal:

I thank the Chair and Senator Mark Daly, who is an old friend and has been a terrific advocate on Capitol Hill for a long time. I thank members of the committee. I just ended a phone call with members of the Friends of Ireland and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis. We had a lengthy conversation with him about Brexit and its ramifications. I should tell the committee by way of introduction that it is a long-standing interest of many of us, myself included, to see the success of the Good Friday Agreement as one of the paramount achievements of American foreign policy. My own interest and involvement began with the hunger strikes in the North more than three decades ago. I remember how difficult that was as it was conveyed to us here in America, with the long-standing friendship and loyalties that we have because of parents and grandparents born on that island. That in some measure is a reflection of how American foreign policy has always manifested itself as a reflection of domestic politics. We have played a strong and sturdy role in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement and as a guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.

I have one important observation, having engaged with numerous British Prime Ministers, Secretaries of State and Members of Parliament. Speaker Pelosi and I met with the Brexiteers on behalf of the Friends of Ireland. It was not one of the more cordial get-togethers that we had. It is important to remember that there were three strands of the Good Friday Agreement. Strand two included Belfast and Dublin, and removing that Border. It has worked beyond all of our imaginations. Government is back up and running in the North. People argue about the more mundane issues of the day. During the more difficult moments, as the Irish protocol was threatened, I raised this issue assertively with Prime Minister May, Members of Parliament and also with the Irish Government. Our argument was asking why we would jeopardise the success of the Good Friday Agreement, given that it brought to an end the longest-standing political dispute in the history of the western world.

The statistics here are most valuable. Some 30 years ago, there were 30,000 British soldiers in the North of Ireland in a geographic area the size of the state of Connecticut. One could not move or go anywhere and one tradition held the other tradition in place. Policing was unfair. Economic opportunity was in many instances almost non-existent. The success that we have witnessed to this day is hardly perfect. We have not come to believe that they have all fallen in love with each other but in the crucible of politics, we think that they have developed a path forward. In the conversation that we have just had with the Secretary of State, we encouraged a reminder of that success and said that there could be no jeopardy by returning to a Border or the threat of a Border.

I think the Border was an invented issue or dispute that was raised in Brexit. In the conversations that I had with the foreign minister, Mr. Raab, when he flew here to see me twice and met with Speaker Pelosi, he made the argument that it was the European Union that was jeopardising a return to the Border. We took a contrary position and said that was not the case. Speaker Pelosi, to her credit, sided with us on this issue. In the recent visit that we had, when I spoke with her and said that I thought there was an active effort being made to discourage us from visiting the Border, she said to me that we are going to the Border. I could not have been any happier. We went to the Border and pointed out the success that we have all had a chance to witness, all of these "it could never happen" moments. We have reminded the Secretary of State, British Prime Ministers and members of the British Government that there can be no jeopardy to the Good Friday Agreement. That visit drew considerable attention across the Republic of Ireland and the North.

I congratulate the committee and Members of the Oireachtas. Political parties in the Republic have been extraordinarily helpful by all seeing this from the same vantage point. There have been efforts in the past to divide Members of the Oireachtas over some of the more nuanced parts of the discussion that have taken place in the North. Members' unwavering support of us has made it considerably less difficult as we offer a plausible path forward. I thank the committee and would be happy to take any questions that members might have. We retain the necessary enthusiasm for seeing through these events.