Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McHugh for his interest in the matter. I have had several meetings with him involving some hauliers from County Donegal. I welcome him taking the initiative to meet the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Ms Theresa Villiers, MP, about the matter. We will not give up on it and will continue to work on it. As he pointed out, the legislative instrument required to enforce it has yet to be passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly so while it is law, it appears to me that it is not enforceable at this point in time. It may give us a little bit of time to come up with a solution. However, his point is well made that we should try to co-ordinate these matters better at inter-ministerial level and also through the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. It is worth bearing in mind that it is no longer possible to have special arrangements between the UK and Ireland unless they pre-exist the signing of the European treaties so anything that is done will have to agree with European law.

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