Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I met with the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd MP, last Monday, 6 February in London. Discussions between the Home Secretary and myself focused on the ongoing co-operation between Ireland and the United Kingdom on criminal justice and security matters. These meetings form part of the regular engagement my Department has with our counterparts in the UK to support ongoing co-operation on these important issues.

As the Deputy knows, formal negotiations have not yet begun following the UK's decision to leave the EU. Any discussions with our UK counterparts will take full account of that, but there is a range of issues that is important for us to discuss. I want to continue the excellent co-operation. I highlighted how important it was, for example, that we had co-operation on the European arrest warrant and other EU justice and home affairs legal instruments. We need to continue the level of co-operation we have at present after the UK exits the EU. The precise mechanisms by which we will be able to do that are not clear at present, but I wanted to highlight how well that has worked. We do not want to go back to the old ways of doing it.

We also spoke about the common travel area, its importance to the people of both Ireland and the UK and how vital it is in the context of Northern Ireland. When I was in London, I also had a separate meeting with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, MP. Our discussion was very much focused on the common travel area, its importance in the context of the peace process and the need for all parties to re-engage in the political process in Northern Ireland.

My meeting with the Home Secretary was very helpful, focusing primarily on the criminal justice issues. There is a huge amount of EU legislation and both Irish and UK legislation that will be impacted. My Department has been examining this over the last number of months. It has done very extensive work on examining the implications for this legislation given the Brexit context.

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