Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. We will not accept anything less than full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and its successor agreements. As the Deputy is aware, it is an internationally and legally binding Agreement lodged in the United Nations.

I read out in my reply the number of bilateral meetings that I have had formally with different leaders. Obviously, at a European Council meeting of 27 or 28 member states, one meets most people but does not sit down for an informal or formal bilateral meeting with all of them. That is the same as at any other place I meet and talk to EU leaders.

I am now engaged in meeting each one of the leaders individually in order that they fully understand our problems in Ireland. That is why I had a formal meeting on the Saturday morning with Prime Minister Muscat, who understands that this is a political challenge in respect of the Border and Northern Ireland. He now understands now the common travel area. Everybody in Europe appreciates that there is a peace process here. I visited Spain to talk to Prime Minister Rajoy. Spain also has an issue in Gibraltar, with which the Barnier task force must deal. Gibraltar is an issue between Spain and Great Britain. That is a bilateral between them. Obviously, the Spanish would have great difficulty in asking for special status for Ireland because Catalonia is an issue for Spain.

The point is that we have a particular set of circumstances. We have a special designation in terms of the peace process. There are special funds in respect of INTERREG and PEACE funds. There is so much other support and we want to build on that for the future. In my view, we already have special recognition and a special status that does not apply anywhere else. How can we expand that in the negotiations ahead? For instance, I met fishermen from all over the country last night. It is a very complex situation. We do not want fishing to be siloed or left on its own. It has got to be part of the food chain along with the agrieconomy that is so important to us. Yet, the difficulties with the Common Fisheries Policy are extraordinarily complex. We do not want to be left in a situation in which a fishing fleet is removed from the exclusive waters of Britain, for instance, but has to put up with other people coming into the exclusive waters of Ireland. We are glad to have the support of Fianna Fáil. I hope that Deputy Micheál Martin and Deputy Darragh O'Brien will speak to their political colleagues in Europe to help make them aware of our particular circumstances in Ireland.

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