Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They are in the Department here. I will supply Deputy Howlin with the name later. The Secretary General's equivalent was here. We have a person who is the lead person in the Department here. In any event, I have to restructure the numbers in the Department of the Taoiseach here, between that and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and we are looking at how we might expand those numbers, maybe even from other Departments. I recall that previously there were people contracted in who had experience and expertise in particular areas that would help the general environment in those kind of discussions, but I will advise Members of that.

It was agreed further that detailed work on a number of areas will be required in the coming weeks and months and these will be co-ordinated through mechanisms like the common travel area forum, the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement, and the engagement between the UK permanent secretaries and the Irish Secretaries General here under the joint statement we had back in 2012. I will keep Members informed and we will have a meeting next week, when it is appropriate.

Deputies Howlin and Adams mentioned infrastructure. I referred to this yesterday. If, in theory, when Britain has left, and there were to be no PEACE funds or no INTERREG funds, then many of these projects would obviously fall, because many of them are predicated on money being put up front by us and by Northern Ireland and being recompensed later from a European point of view. A Minister might be asked to put money up front for a project that might not be recompensed later on, or that might fail. This is a stalled process now as we are here, so we need to have our North-South bodies in such a position that they can continue to plan for projects. That is an issue.

Deputy Martin mentioned the oversight of this by the European Council. There are three institutions, as Deputies are aware: the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council. Obviously the Parliament has grown in importance over the past number of years. The theory here was that the European Commission has always had the expertise in and the experience of dealing with negotiations from countries that wanted to join the European Union. Equally, that experience is there in this first instance in which a country wishes to leave the European Union, but there was a very strong feeling around the table that it is the European Council, that is, the elected Heads of State or Government, that should oversee this politically. It is a matter for the European Council to give a mandate to the Commission in the nature of any negotiations to be conducted. I would assume - I would make this case very strongly, because we are the country that is most affected by the Brexit decision - that we would be in there at those negotiations as part of the European Council oversight of the work being done by the Commission.

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