Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the ambassador. I thank him for coming to the meeting and for his willingness generally to engage with Deputies and Senators since his appointment. I am sorry to hear that he had to leave Twitter. He published an article in the Business Postabout the review of foreign policy and security, which he is perfectly entitled to do. I regret that it would seem he was bullied off Twitter. We need open and frank debate on these matters and his intervention was welcome even if some people did not agree with it.

I agree about the improved EU-UK relationship. That is to be welcomed by everybody, including us here in Ireland. It is great to see that there is political stability in the United Kingdom. Since Brexit there have been a number of Prime Ministers and so forth. The European Commission was a little exasperated by all that. That is all in the past now. The task now is to improve relations between the EU and the UK and included in that is Ireland.

I note what His Excellency had to say about Ukraine and the shared values. That is important and that has come to the fore since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I also note his willingness to engage with the European Political Community. As he knows, there have been two meetings of that so far. It is great that His Excellency is engaging with that and is an active participant in that and that his Prime Minister can meet our Taoiseach on the margins of those meetings. That is all good. Also good are the changes made to the Nationality and Borders Bill, whereby it was amended so EU residents who are legally resident in Ireland will not need an electronic travel authorisation to enter Northern Ireland. There was a strong case put by the Irish Government and the UK Government made changes to that. That is to be welcomed.

The trade and co-operation agreement, withdrawal agreement, Northern Ireland protocol and Windsor Framework are very complex documents. Let us face that. There are a lot of committees to be established arising from them. How does His Excellency see the Windsor Framework being implemented now? Where are we at in that regard? Are all the various committees set up under the trade and co-operation agreement and the withdrawal agreement up and running and functioning? As a parliamentarian I am particularly interested in the parliamentary partnership assembly. It is good to see that has met. That is a very broad question. Basically, I am asking about the implementation of the Windsor Framework and where we are at now. I guess there is still a lot of work to be done to make that work. That is the first question.

Linked to that is the DUP opposition to the Northern Ireland protocol and its consideration of the Windsor Framework. There is talk of the British Government bringing forward legislation relating to trade and sovereignty to reassure the DUP. Where is that at? Is that the position, namely, that these talks are under way and there is a possibility that the DUP will be given assurances on trade and sovereignty by way of legislation?

I also raise the issue of human rights following Brexit. Deputies and Senators will have gotten a joint submission from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission having regard to Article 2 of the Windsor Framework. The submission notes that common EU membership facilitated broad alignment of equality and human rights law in the past and that now there is a danger of divergence across the island of Ireland in relation to human rights. It is a long-winded question again. What is the British Government doing with regard to human rights generally? Now that it has left the EU, what is its view of the Council of Europe and so forth? Is there promised legislation in this regard? Are there changes proposed?

We are obviously not going to deal with the legacy Bill here today but I would like to put on record my opposition to that. I know it was held up in the House of Lords. His Excellency might want to comment even on that part of it. How is that legislation proceeding at this stage? Will the House of Lords changes delay it? If he does not want to answer that, that is fine. I will leave it at that for the moment.