Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had no intention of putting forward a view that a statutory-based forum or a statutory-based institution be set up. Ministers currently meet on a regular basis through the North-South Ministerial Council. We also have other North-South bodies and State agencies, including the British-Irish Council, the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and so on. From that point of view, I was struck by the impact of the economic discussion we had down here in preparation for budgets 2016 and 2017, whereby all of the main players were brought together in one location to offer their views on how, in that case, the budgets should be framed, the issues for prioritisation and so on. That is what was in my mind but I said publicly it could not work if all the parties did not buy in to it. There was no discussion with First Minister Foster or any other leader in Northern Ireland and there was no discussion about the setting up of, as titled, "a forum" or an institution.

This question was raised during a debate in the House last week. When one considers all of the entities that are in contact with each other my thought subsequently was that it would be beneficial for everybody if a conversation were enabled to take place about the priorities that everybody collectively saw arising from the Brexit decision, nothing more that. Therefore, there was no discussion with the Alliance, the SDLP, Sinn Féin, the UUP or the DUP. It is not going to work; it is not going to happen. I still extend an open invitation to everybody who might be interested in having that kind of conversation. As I said, it is not something that would be put on a statutory basis. We need to be clear where the horizon is now. Clearly, nothing is going to happen until the British Conservative Party elects a new Prime Minister and sets out its strategy and intent. I hear different comments about European Union citizens living in Britain, when Article 50 might be triggered and so on. Let me be clear that we will seek to protect the interests of our people and of all other people living on this island, dealing with the economy and trade, Northern Ireland and British-Irish relations, the common travel area, an open Border and the European Union. These are all areas that are of intense interest now to people. While they might not have had an issue about politics before, they know now that it can impact on them.

From our perspective, what we agreed yesterday at the North-South Ministerial Council with all of the parties will be followed through diligently and rigorously. We must also understand our connections with the UK and the EU. Nobody wants to see a hard border. Nobody wants to see customs and checkpoints every mile of the road on the way into or out of Northern Ireland. These are issues that concern all the parties in Northern Ireland. The Deputy is well aware that all of the parties, with the exception of the DUP, favoured the "Remain" vote and the issue was clear from that perspective. We want to look after the interests of our people and our relationships with Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the EU. There is a great deal of work and there are challenges ahead, many of them as yet unknown.

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