Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

She also makes points in respect of the Border, the peace process, the common travel area and priorities that have been identified between the Irish and British Government - between Dublin and Downing Street - for quite some time. These are not soft assurances at all. They are written, specific intentions from the British Prime Minister's point of view. That is correlated on the other side by the very clear statement from the European Council. The third element of that is the very clear statements from the European Parliament. The European Parliament should not be forgotten here because it has to give its consent to the outcome of the negotiations. Deputy Burton spoke of an all-Ireland dimension. Deputy Howlin, the leader of Deputy Burton's party, spoke at both civic forums on an all-island basis and made a valuable contribution, as did many of the other party leaders. There is no Executive at the moment in Northern Ireland. I hope that can come together very quickly so that common objectives and the voice of the North can be heard at these discussions. The opportunity for all-island solutions in respect of water, energy and animal health are all possible. We have a specific set of unique circumstances that apply in the case of Ireland. Deputy Burton also talked about slippage. Unemployment today is at 6.4%, which is down from 15.2% when Deputy Burton and the former Minister, Deputy Howlin, took up duty in the previous Government. It is an extraordinary change in a few short years. There have never been more opportunities in so many ways for creating employment. Brexit is a challenge. It contains uncertainties but these are all matters for us to negotiate hard on. As I have often said, we have prepared assiduously in so many ways with long-term low interest, by hedging forward and with extra trade missions and support for small companies exporting out of here. We will treat this as a very serious matter in respect of the protection of our economy and our citizens' jobs.

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