Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raised a number of important issues about Turkey. Clearly, the European Union and Turkey must work together. The joint action plan agreed on 29 November is designed to assist Turkey in providing for refugees in its own territory and to prevent uncontrolled migration from there to the European Union. We are committed to working with Turkey on the €3 billion fund for supporting refugees from Syria based there. Implementation of this will be critical. Insufficient progress has been made and there is no question about this. When we spoke to other countries, Jordan and Lebanon stated they also need support. They raised a valid point on the camps. Some of them are enormous, as the Deputy is aware, and children's education, maternity facilities, hygiene facilities, food and nutrition are enormously complicated. We have no sense of the scale of what is happening in those camps.

There have been some positive moves since 29 November. The Deputy mentioned pre-accession. Chapter 17 of the accession negotiations is about economic and monetary policy, and this has been opened with Turkey. The participation of the Turkish Foreign Minister in a good discussion with EU Foreign Ministers at the December Foreign Affairs Council was the start of this. Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the Commission, recently met the Turkish Ministers of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Justice to emphasise the need to speed up implementation of the joint action plan. Vice-President Mogherini and Commissioner Hahn also met the Turkish side, where the same need for implementation was underlined. Further close monitoring of this will be critical. As the Deputy understands, these are complicated discussions.

The internal situation in Turkey is of a serious nature. The conflict between the Turkish Government and the Kurdistan Workers' Party restarted in July 2015, with 180 civilians killed in violence since then. There are clearly human rights concerns. Ireland strongly condemns the horrific suicide terrorist attacks which took place, the twin suicide bombings in Ankara on 10 October, which killed 102 people, and in Istanbul on 12 January, which killed ten people, including eight German tourists. The latest Commission progress report on the EU accession process noted a number of concerns, including with regard to significant shortcomings affecting the independence of the judiciary, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, and we continue to raise these concerns, including most recently at the Council meeting in December. We and our European partners will continue this dialogue with Turkey.

We did not have a detailed briefing on the incidents of sexual assault and abuse in Cologne, but they were of a very serious nature. I discussed this with the Minister-President of Bavaria, Mr. Seehofer, when I had occasion to meet him in recent weeks. This is regarded as a very serious issue in Germany, and the police authorities there are on a very clear alert.

In respect of the issues raised about the UK Prime Minister and the case being put for the referendum, as I said to Deputy O'Brien, the paper in response has not yet been circulated by President Tusk. It is due early next week. We will see the detail of how he intends to respond and what input the European Commission might have. At the December meeting, President Juncker stated the Commission had views on a number of the elements attached to the four issues and he would like to make an input.

The fundamental question is not about the restructuring of freedom of movement, although there are concerns about the Schengen Agreement and whether countries are in a position to police their borders, and the issue of the Dublin Convention is being reviewed in regard to where people might be sent back if they are to be sent back for whatever reason. This is an issue that is of some concern at present to countries. In regard to the issue of welfare, in Britain there appears to be a very strong view among people that for persons to draw benefit or benefit in work, they should make a contribution before they draw to make that a workable situation. This is a central issue that comes up very often in Britain, and it is an issue that is of concern to the Prime Minister. He has said on a number of occasions that he would like to see a number of options he has tabled being considered and that an outcome could be agreed on this. I do not know the detail of this yet because I assume President Tusk will respond to this in his paper.

There will be very strong objections to any restriction on the free movement of people, and the opportunity to move from place to place comes with the Internal Market. In our case in Ireland, the common travel area between here and Britain and Northern Ireland allows for ease of doing business, commerce, trade and other activities. I believe the issue regarding the eurozone and other countries in the European Union which are not members of the eurozone is one that can be resolved. There are two currencies. In Britain there is sterling, we have the euro and there are various currencies in other countries outside the eurozone. This is an issue that can be resolved.

With regard to the Deputy's final comments, we have been very forthright about being as open and generous as Fianna Fáil was to the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly. We have had joint trade missions to Singapore. We had personnel from Northern Ireland in Brussels during our Presidency in order that they would be fully informed on the advantages of what might be going through regarding the Common Agricultural Policy or Cohesion Fund money. In this regard, the practical arrangements on which we have worked so hard to get cross-Border activities in a range of sectors are ones on which we can build for the future. The referendum is a matter for the electorate in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, but we are all members of the European Union. Yesterday, when I spoke to more than 120 or 130 people in McCann FitzGerald in London, I made it perfectly clear that we have a real interest in this because the decision is so critical. McCann FitzGerald is one of the big Irish law firms and has been established in London for 30 years. These people are Irish citizens who will vote in the referendum. They understand the parallel, in that when we had to vote on the fiscal stability treaty people voted 60:40 in favour of the euro, the eurozone and the European Union.

Essentially, it is a matter for those who go to vote in the United Kingdom to make their choice. We want to see Britain remain a central and strong member of the Union in the time ahead. It is of interest to Britain, it is of interest to Europe and it is certainly of interest to Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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