Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not really interested in the comments of Deputy Barry except to say that the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, has done quite a deal of work in respect of the Mahon report and I have asked him to consider having a conversation in the House when it is appropriate on the changes that have been made and the work that has been done in his unceasing efforts to deal with the issue of direct provision.

Deputy Brendan Smith raised a number of important points. I have set out that I do not contemplate any return to that hard Border of customs posts where they used to apply back in the time of the Troubles, as the Deputy is aware, with unapproved crossings blown up or impassable. We are well acquainted with the Deputy's point about the impact on the economy North and South. There is an agreement and understanding of there being no return to that kind of Border. It is a political issue that requires a political solution. In my mind and that of the British Prime Minister, there must be a way found to deal with that. Until she writes her letter, we do not know the exact issue about customs union from the British perspective. We know the British Prime Minister wants as close a relationship as possible with the European Union, which we support. It will be known in the next couple of days and the Deputy's point in that sense is valuable.

I will follow through on the issues I discussed with the US President, the US Vice President, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Ryan, and members of the Senate and House, including the Ireland caucus and Friends of Ireland. It is about contact and follow-through in respect of the issues I discussed with the US President. Deputy Cullinane raised the point of voting for members of the diaspora, including those in Northern Ireland, in presidential elections. We will publish the options paper this week on that. There are a number of legal, policy and practical issues and we must have a debate about this. The paper will be one of the topics for discussion at the Global Irish Civic Forum to be held in Dublin in May. I will not name a date for a referendum as we must get all of that together in the first instance. We will look at how the register is compiled and how people will vote in an international setting. Would a welder in Alaska have to travel to Washington to vote? One needs to be able to do this online safely. We will publish that this week and get it moving.

Deputy Burton also raised an important point. I spent quite a deal of time in my discussions with the US President talking about the Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland, including how this came about with support from America when President Clinton appointed Senator Mitchell to be the lead negotiator. I asked him in the context of what happened before to have a desk in the Administration available for Northern Ireland with a person at that desk and, if necessary, to follow through with the appointment of an envoy. He was very interested in this and there was a very clear understanding of the nature of how sensitive this was and the troubles that existed which were ended by negotiation. I hope he will follow through on that.

I made the point that it is very important for the European Union to continuously engage with the US Administration on the basis of the potential of setting down trade conditions for the next 50 years between the two most economically developed regions on the planet. There are potentially millions of jobs either side of the Atlantic in this regard. That part of the conversation was very important, constructive and informative for the US President and his Administration.

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