Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to acknowledge the importance of this afternoon's debate. I thank the Government Chief Whip for ensuring it took place. As a Government, we welcome all the views in the House. I detect and acknowledge a collective determination across the Government and Opposition benches to meet the challenges and uncertainties of the period ahead. Our work together over the next months and years must fully serve Irish national interests. We must all work towards the construction of a new environment in which to maintain the strongest possible relations with our European Union partners and indeed with the United Kingdom. The Irish people expect nothing less than a comprehensive, proactive, constructive and calm response to these challenges.

Earlier, the Taoiseach set out his overall approach and the key priorities across Government. Other Ministers and State agencies are setting out their plans in their respective areas. There will be no greater priority for me as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and for my Department than the effective handling of the process that will follow the decision of the UK electorate to leave the EU. Almost every unit in my Department will be involved because there is a direct connection between this issue and our work in areas like EU and global foreign relations, Northern Ireland, British-Irish relations, supports to the Irish abroad, trade, development assistance, international law, passport services and consular services. As Minister, I will ensure we have the capabilities in place to manage all this work at home and abroad. The Government published a summary of its contingency framework on Friday afternoon. My Department has already commenced the implementation of its own detailed contingency framework.

I would like to reinforce what I said on Friday following the confirmation of the referendum result. First, Ireland is and will remain closely aligned to the EU and the UK.

Ireland will, of course, firmly remain in the EU and in the eurozone, while we will also do everything to protect our political, economic and people-to-people links to the United Kingdom. Second, a key priority for me will be the ongoing work to support stability, reconciliation and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland. Third, we must all stress that the UK is not leaving the EU immediately and that all arrangements, rights and facilities linked to EU membership still apply in full. A negotiation process will commence and will take a minimum of two years prior to a UK exit. During that time, the UK remains an EU member state.

The referendum outcome presents serious challenges for the EU as a whole but it presents unique challenges in Ireland, as we repeatedly outlined in the period leading up to the referendum. It is important for us now in the days, weeks, months and, indeed, years ahead, that Ireland’s particular circumstances are understood and taken into account. Last Thursday, on referendum polling day, I briefed all the EU ambassadors accredited to Ireland, setting out the Government’s priorities for both possible outcomes to the referendum. I continued that work on Friday, when the result was known, speaking to UK and other European counterparts by telephone, including the UK Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, MP, and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, MP.

As ever, Northern Ireland remains a core priority for me. On Friday, I also spoke with Northern Ireland political leaders including the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. On Wednesday, I will travel to Belfast for a series of meetings. In my Department, Irish ambassadors and consuls general across the world were briefed in the days leading up to the referendum. There were consultations with heads of mission in key missions on Friday morning. In the coming days, I will convene a meeting of our ambassadors from several EU capitals for consultations and discussions on our approach in the period ahead. Ireland’s diplomatic resources will be used to the full, namely, to drive home Ireland’s priorities with EU governments, to support the Irish community in Britain and to support Irish trade, among other key tasks.

The Government will also prioritise the necessary work to protect and sustain trade, business, tourism and investment flows within the island, as well as with Britain, the EU and across the world. Our embassies will support and co-ordinate this work on the ground with local market teams involving the State agencies, while that work will be guided at home by the work of the export trade council, which I chair.

The Government will use every resource available to it. On Friday, I wrote to all members of the Global Irish Network, requesting their support for the Government’s work to minimise any adverse impacts on Ireland’s interests. I extend my thanks to the vibrant Irish community in the UK which made a valuable contribution to the debate with many, including Irish4Europe, working tirelessly to stress the Irish perspective, as well as to inform and involve the Irish community. Among the Irish community in Britain, many are now worried about their future. The Government, including my Department and Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, is acutely conscious of their concerns. I assure our citizens in the UK that we will continue to advocate for and defend their interests in the time ahead, with particular reference to the common travel area.

On the matter of passports, there has in recent days been a spike in interest in Irish passports in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere. The increased interest clearly points to a sense of concern among some UK passport holders that the rights they enjoy as EU citizens are about to abruptly end. This is not the case. The UK has voted to leave the European Union but it has not yet left. It will take some time for negotiations on a British exit to conclude. Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty envisages a two-year negotiation process once the article is triggered, while many speculate this could take longer. Over this period, the UK remains a member of the European Union, its citizens continue to fully enjoy EU rights, including free movement of people within the EU. There is, therefore, absolutely no urgency for UK citizens, who may also be Irish citizens, in now applying for Irish passports. An unnecessary surge in applications for Irish passports will place significant pressure on the system and on turnaround times. In turn, that would likely impact those with a genuine need for passports to facilitate imminent travel plans. Those who believe they need to apply for an Irish passport immediately to enjoy free travel in the EU should take full account of the facts before making an application. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s website clearly sets out information on passport entitlements and procedures. People should consult the site.

During the course of the referendum campaign, the Taoiseach and I both pointed to the importance of Ireland’s and the UK’s shared membership of the European Union for the progress made in Northern Ireland over recent decades, not least the tangible practical support the EU provided for building peace and reconciliation on our island. Accordingly, I am conscious of the serious implications for Northern Ireland of the UK’s referendum decision. The fact that 56% of those who voted in Northern Ireland to remain are now faced with the prospect of their preference being set aside, as a result of the overall result across the UK, raises profound issues, as it does in Scotland. Many people in the North, both of the Nationalist and Unionist traditions, are deeply concerned that, in spite of the expressed will of the people, Northern Ireland will now find itself outside of the European Union and deprived of the EU scaffolding which provided such support for the progress made on this island over recent decades. These are real and genuine concerns which the Irish Government intends to address with a spirit of determination and responsibility. The key reassurance I can provide is that, irrespective of last Thursday’s result, the Good Friday Agreement remains the template for political relationships on this island and between these islands.

When I spoke to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on Friday, we both agreed this foundational international agreement remains the basis for the approach of the two Governments to Northern Ireland. Friday’s result does not in any way diminish the centrality of the Good Friday Agreement or the commitment of the two Governments to uphold it. As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday and succeeding agreements, the Irish Government is determined that its institutions, values and principles will be fully protected. The Good Friday Agreement is absolutely clear on the issue of sovereignty in Northern Ireland - it rests on the consent of a majority of its people. The Agreement recognised that the wish of a current majority was that Northern Ireland remained under British sovereignty, but also that this sovereign status might change in the future. It, therefore, provides for the possibility of a Border poll to ascertain if a majority in the future wished for a change in the constitutional status. It further prescribes that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland shall arrange for the holding of such a poll, if he or she believes that a majority is likely to vote for such a change.

In the light of last week’s momentous decision, I can understand why some people have proposed such a Border poll be held. I also accept that such calls are simply invoking the use of a mechanism provided for under the Good Friday Agreement. However, I believe pressing for a Border poll at this time would not be prudent or effective for two reasons. First, the fact that 56% of those who voted in last Thursday’s referendum in Northern Ireland opted to remain within the European Union cannot logically be interpreted as meaning that a majority of the electorate there would vote for a united Ireland. These are two very different propositions. At present, there is no convincing evidence to suggest that a majority of the people of Northern Ireland would opt for a change in its constitutional status.

Second, while the prospect of a vote for change in the near future would be remote, the mere fact of holding the referendum could nevertheless be divisive. The Northern Ireland institutions have only recently emerged from a prolonged period of turbulence. It required two major sets of negotiations over the past two years to stabilise the operation of the Northern Ireland Executive. Just as the new Executive is beginning to deliver good government for the people of Northern Ireland, do we now really want to toss in the potentially destabilising issue of the binary choice between British or Irish sovereignty? I say, not. In the short term, a Border poll would unlikely trigger any change in constitutional status but would risk the current stability of the Northern Ireland institutions, achieved with such great effort and which are beginning to yield positive results. Rather than focus on a Border poll, our immediate strategy should be to sit down with the British Government and with the Northern Ireland Executive to urgently discuss how, collectively, we are together going to protect the gains of the past decades and to prevent the worst effects of a UK departure from the EU.

As far as I am aware, no major party in Northern Ireland wants to see the reimposition of a hard Border on the island of Ireland. They all want to see continuation of the freedom of movement of trade, services and people across the island. I spoke about this matter in separate conversations on Friday with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and with the leader of the SDLP. Next Monday’s plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in Dublin, chaired by the Taoiseach, will provide an opportunity to have a high-level strategic discussion between the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive on how together we will address the challenges arising from a UK exit.

I accept, of course, that future arrangements with regard to the Border on this island will not exclusively be determined by the combined wishes of the Irish Government, the British Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. They will also be influenced by the wider negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union of 27 remaining member states. One of our challenges, therefore, will be for Ireland to use our influence with our EU partners to persuade them of the need for specific arrangements which protect the key gains of the peace process on this island - a process to which the EU has already made a key contribution.

I will conclude by saying that a UK exit from the European Union will present us all with a major challenge but Ireland and our people have dealt with major challenges in the past. While the outcome of the UK referendum is definitely not the one we would have hoped or wished for, I believe everyone here in this House is determined to ensure that the peace, stability and prosperity achieved over recent decades is not only protected but sustained.

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