Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We enter these discussions as a member of the European Union, but we do so as a country with a unique set of relationships with the United Kingdom. The common travel area has been of great benefit to both countries before we joined the Union and since we joined the Union; it has not been tested when one country is in the Union and one is outside it. The British Prime Minister is clear that neither she nor I want to see a return to a hard Border and will do everything possible to see that the free movement of people and goods is as it is now.

We are in the negotiations as a member of the European Union, but we want to retain our specific traditional relationship with the United Kingdom. When I met the British Prime Minister, Mrs. May, she made it clear that she does want to return to a hard Border and nor do we. She wants to retain the common travel area, as do we. We will speak as a member of the Union, but we have a particular relationship with Britain that we want to retain.

I spoke to the Secretary of State, Mr. Brokenshire, MP, at the British-Irish Association conference in Oxford and I reminded him that in respect of the Kingsmills massacre the Tánaiste had sent whatever information we had on our Garda files up to the coroner's inquest. I only made it as a point of information for him as an example of the kind of thing the British Government could start to deal with in terms of breaking down the legacy of pressure that is there, either in Ballymurphy or Kingsmills or wherever else, as Deputy Adams will well understand. It was shortly afterwards that the meeting took place with him in respect of Ballymurphy.

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