Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will see to it that Mr. Davis is contacted at an early stage to have the full range of our constitutional position fully outlined for him. I will ask the relevant Minister to deal with that fairly quickly.

When I was in Edinburgh at the last British-Irish Council, we spoke about the possibilities of increased business and trade between Ireland and Scotland before the decision. The Deputy is aware that Scotland has opened an office in Dublin. We will look at the question of beefing up the capacity in Edinburgh. I was very impressed with their approach when I met people in Glasgow about the possibilities for Irish business. The British-Irish Council meets in a special session in Cardiff this week on Friday to speak about the Brexit position, the Single Market and the CTA. They will all be points of discussion.

I would like to think there will be an opportunity for everybody to have their say on this. It may well be necessary to do it separately from the formalities of the Good Friday Agreement structure. As I stated before, although there is no mandate from here to negotiate for Northern Ireland, it is very important that we have a responsibility as co-guarantor of the agreement to understand the challenges that Northern Ireland businesses and entrepreneurs feel they face arising from Brexit. The Deputy is quite right in that many of these issues have not even been thought of in terms of how there will be an impact from the decision of the electorate to leave the European Union.

When I was in Donegal yesterday, the point I was making was that when the Good Friday Agreement was drafted, people were long-sighted enough to put into the agreement a clause whereby a time might arrive - we are now 20 years on - when a secretary of state could invoke the clause on the basis of sufficient support for a Border poll. That does not apply now because there is not sufficient support. I make the point that in years to come, it may well be that with Britain having left the European Union and Northern Ireland having voted to stay in the European Union but remaining a member of the United Kingdom, there may be general negotiations and discussions. The Deputy made the point, quite rightly, about Scotland wanting to join the European Union if it leaves the UK. We should be able to make the arrangement on a long-term basis if it arises in future that a secretary of state triggers that clause, which will by then have been in the Good Friday Agreement for many years. That is if Northern Ireland would want to extract itself from the United Kingdom to join a country that continued as a member of the European Union. The only point I was making was that the discussions should be long-sighted and visionary enough to cater for that kind of issue if it happened. I am not saying it will happen and I do not see any evidence of a Border poll now. Some time in the future, they should not have to go through the process of a long drawn-out application to join the Republic, if that was the wish, but to be a member of the European Union as well. These are the kinds of issues that should be encompassed in this.

I agree with the Deputy because under the Horizon 2020 programme we have 500 partnerships with Britain in universities, research, scientific analysis and so on. This is very worrying as the Commission has informed some of those people that funding might not be likely to continue. There are also many thousands of Irish students going to college in colleges of technology and universities in Britain, so the issue of what happens with them must be discussed.

There is also the question of electricity supply. Northern Ireland depends on the Republic of Ireland. We have interconnections with gas. These are important elements. If Britain is to leave and no longer be subject to the regulations in so far as climate change is concerned or the other implications of EU directives, these will all need to be discussed. We will also need to discuss what applies in terms of the law currently. If there is a single island electricity market underpinned by legislation in Dublin or Westminster, when Britain leaves we presume the legislation will continue to be enforced. In the longer term, part of the European Union philosophy is not to have any energy islands and we should be connected to mainland Europe. Currently that connection comes through Britain with undersea and land connections. These are all part of the dialogue we must have.

I would like to think we could put the best possible proposition together to have that kind of discussion from political parties, non-governmental organisations, business people, trade unions and everybody else who wants to have a say. We are working to devise what might be an appropriate operation to allow that to happen. I hope we can do that in September but I will consult the leaders opposite for their views on it.

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