Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the ambassador and thank him for engaging with us. I know he met many of us in different capacities in his short time here and he is willing to engage with us. He is very accessible and I appreciate he has gone to Monaghan and Donegal. He has done his best to deal with the issue of Brexit, communicate the message of the British Government to us and listen to us and our concerns from an Irish perspective.

Article 50 has been triggered. I think most of us would give a cautious welcome to page 5 of Prime Minister Theresa May's letter where she talks about the unique relationship with the Republic of Ireland and the importance of the peace process in Northern Ireland. She mentions the need to avoid a hard Border between our two countries and the need to maintain the common travel area. She states that we should make sure that the UK's withdrawal from the EU does not harm the Republic of Ireland. She also states that nothing should be done to jeopardise the peace process in Northern Ireland and she speaks of the necessity to continue to uphold the Good Friday Agreement. From an Irish perspective, I think we should also give a cautious welcome to the draft guidelines published by the European Council President which refer to the paramount importance of preserving the gains of our peace process and call for flexible and imaginative solutions to avoid the creation of a hard Border. There is also a reference, as the ambassador will know, to the existing bilateral agreements and arrangements between the UK and Ireland.

With regard to the negotiations, I presume the ambassador would agree with us here in Ireland that the talks on the separation and the talks on the future relationship should run as close as possible in parallel because this would avoid uncertainty for Irish businesses and Irish citizens. I am of the view that this is a matter on which we could agree.

I want to raise the issue of Gibraltar, which has been very much in the news in recent few days. It would seem that Spain in particular has got some sort of a veto in regard to the negotiations and we in Ireland are beginning to wonder why we did not get a similar veto put into the guidelines. I wonder what the ambassador thinks about how this has unfolded in the days following the publication of the guidelines. That the final deal will be decided by qualified majority voting is a concern for us and I would be interested to hear the ambassador's view.

I presume the British Government is working hard on the implications of Brexit for the Good Friday Agreement. For example, one issue is the position regarding the European Convention on Human Rights in view of the fact that there is talk that the UK will introduce a UK bill of rights to supersede that. This would seem to be at odds with the Good Friday Agreement, in which the British Government is committed to complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the European Convention on Human Rights, with direct access to the courts. There is worry in that regard, and that is just one issue arising out of the implications of Brexit for the Good Friday Agreement. All of us would obviously want to preserve that Agreement and I wonder what in-depth work is being undertaken to ensure it survives.

Is the ambassador concerned about the break-up of the UK? Obviously, Scotland is now talking about a new independence referendum and the issue of Irish unity does seem to have come back on the agenda here as a result of Brexit and for obvious reasons. I wonder what the British Government feels about that. Is the ambassador of the view that this independence movement is unstoppable because of the economic and considerations arising out of Brexit? I would be interested to hear the views of the British Government on that.