Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, and his colleagues. I agree entirely that we have come to the stage in the European context, vis-à-vis Brexit, that it is time to set out the Irish priorities from a national point of view. The Minister of State quite correctly listed the Good Friday Agreement, the common travel area and the future of the EU itself. There are other issues that might drift in also. The three issues that have been identified might be in conflict with each other in some way, in particular the common travel area. It goes without saying that we must retain the Good Friday Agreement and all its trappings in their entirety. That cannot be negotiable. We have put too much time, energy, effort and blood into it, in arriving at the decisions in that context. Too many people made a positive contribution to it, including Prime Ministers and Presidents and it would be very wrong to lose sight of it.

Many speakers mentioned that the common travel area existed before we joined the European Union. Yes it did. It is correct to say it predates the European Union, but unfortunately we never had a situation whereby a country within the European Union and a country outside it had a common travel area. I do not see how that will work out. It may well be at some stage in negotiations that we may find ourselves pushed into a situation whereby in order to retain the common travel area we are pushed to the outer rim of the European Union, and that would be a very serious error to make. I have heard some discussion in this country with people talking loosely about rejoining the Commonwealth and matters of that nature. That could be taken by our European colleagues as an indication of our intention to move in that particular direction and it would neither be helpful to negotiations nor to achieving a good and positive outcome.

In relation to the semester and the MFF, could I ask how the programme is working? It follows on a system that did not work because we waited until the end of the ten-year plan – the Lisbon agenda – to find out that it was not working and that we had to review it.

Is the programme for the mid-term review meeting its targets? Enlargement is a delicate situation with too many other competing factors drawing attention away from it. However, there is still a necessity, particularly with the western Balkans, to ensure there is a focus kept on it at all times. If there is a tendency for a break-up, that is the location from which it is most likely to come.

What was the Turkish response to the Minister of State's intonations at the meeting? There was a reasonably good relationship. I agree an intervention of an undemocratic nature, such as the attempted coup there recently, was probably not the best starting point.

Regarding priorities, it is important we make a significant effort to ensure we retain all our positions regarding access to the European Union. The European Union is great for compromise situations. To reach a compromise which might be acceptable to more people, we might find ourselves squeezed out of the European loop and ready access to the market. Several countries across Europe are now talking about a new Europe with a series of trade agreements. There are people in this country talking about it too. The UK Tory party has had a policy for some considerable time to replace the European Union with a series of trade agreements. As we all know, the smaller countries come out the worst from those types of situations. We need to keep that foremost in our minds and to recognise we are in the European Union. We need to stay there and avoid any movement in any direction to water down our commitment to the European Union or to be encouraged to leave it. As we know, from time to time, issues have come up where petulant references have been made to our presence in the Union.

The situation with migration has improved slightly. However, the European Union did not cover itself with glory in recent years in the way it dealt with the refugee crisis. It is not true to claim that was the ambition of the Union. It was not. It was the ambition of individual member states which influenced the Union to such an extent. The issue of razor wire and the bodies of children floating up on beaches is a sad reflection on the 21st century. We had progressed so far, yet progressed so little for all those years.