Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 51, 54, 79 and 83 together.

The UK Prime Minister, Mrs. May, provided some further clarity in her address of 17 January on the objectives on the part of the UK for the negotiations on its withdrawal from the European Union and its future relationship with the EU. It was not the clarity we would have wished for. We regret the fact that the British Government has chosen to leave both the Single Market and the customs union. Anyway, clear sight of the British Government's intentions at least allows us to focus our preparations on realistic scenarios for the future.

What matters most is where the negotiations end rather than from where we start. Ireland will work to ensure that the negotiations are conducted in a constructive and orderly way. We will encourage the British Government and our EU partners to do so as well.

We enter this next phase with four clear objectives: first, to minimise the impact on our economy; second, to protect the Good Friday Agreement; third, to maintain the common travel area; and fourth, to ensure the integrity and unity of a renewed European Union.

Prime Minister May has made clear that she wishes to have the closest possible economic relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. I welcome that. She has made clear that the United Kingdom will wish to maintain the common travel area and avoid a return to a hard Border between the two parts of the island. I welcome that too. I also welcome the high priority that the European Commission lead negotiator, Michel Barnier, gives to this issue and to the wider question of maintaining the Good Friday Agreement.

The recognition of the importance of the Good Friday Agreement and the common travel area by the United Kingdom and our EU partners is the result of painstaking work by the Taoiseach, other Ministers and Irish officials, including those in our embassies throughout the European Union. I have previously set out in some detail the scale of the diplomatic engagement that has brought us to this point, including the discussions at political or senior official level with our EU partners, numbering over 60 in total.

As yet, we are only in the early stages of a cross-government and diplomatic engagement unlike anything we have seen in our recent history in terms of scale and complexity. Ireland is one of the few EU members to maintain resident diplomatic relations with all EU member states. That network will be deployed intensively in support of our efforts. In light of the clarity offered by the UK Prime Minister, Mrs. May, this work now enters a new and important phase.

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