Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Taoiseach about the pointed reference towards the end of his answer that there will be a special meeting of EU Heads of Government in Rome shortly which will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Union. I am concerned that the Italian Government has made it clear, both through the Prime Minister and its European Minister, that it proposes to reintroduce to the agenda of that meeting the notion of a two-speed Europe. The Taoiseach visited the Polish Prime Minister recently. He did not look very happy. It might have been the cold but it was probably that the Visegrad countries, of which Poland is a member, are extremely upset at the idea, to quote one of the Italian European Ministers, that when Britain has quit the EU it will be an opportunity to go back to the federalist integrationist model which, as the Taoiseach knows, some states see as core member states but with which states from the eastern side of the European Union in particular do not agree. In the context of Brexit, that means we will be caught like the proverbial meat in the sandwich.

I have spoken to the Taoiseach previously on two issues about which I have also written and spoken publicly as well as in this House. First, we badly need a Minister for Brexit because the delegation of functions with regard to that is not adequate in the context of all the issues the Taoiseach has on his plate.

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