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

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union is not in our interest. However, we have to respect the wishes of the UK electorate and its Government and our focus now has to be on establishing a close and beneficial relationship for the future. There can be no bilateral negotiations between individual member states and the UK on its withdrawal or on matters that fall within the sole competence of the European Union. Ireland has a voice and a great ability to influence matters. That is what we have to do. There is already widespread recognition among our partners and the EU institutions that Ireland will be more affected by the departure of the UK than any other member state. Prime Minister May has now invoked the provisions of Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union.

Turning to her letter of 29 March 2017, I will draw attention to two issues that are of particular interest to me as Minister for Justice and Equality. First, she makes clear the UK wants to agree a deep and special partnership with the European Union that takes in both economic and security co-operation. Security co-operation therefore will be a key issue. Second, she referred to the UK’s unique relationship with Ireland, the importance of the peace process in Northern Ireland and the common travel area. These are issues I wish to explore further in my contribution to this debate and I will start with the issue of security co-operation.

The question of border controls, police co-operation and judicial co-operation in criminal matters only entered into the mainstream of the European Union legal framework with the Lisbon treaty in 2009. Despite this, the legal framework for police and judicial criminal co-operation in criminal matters is now almost entirely based on EU instruments. Key instruments include the European arrest warrant for extradition; mutual legal assistance; Europol and the Europol information system; and the police aspects of the Schengen information system - Prüm for checking fingerprints, DNA and car registration and ECRIS for criminal records. There is a very wide variety of instruments. Entering into force in May 2018, before the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, we have the passenger name record, the PNR, for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. The ones I have mentioned just give a taste of the network of instruments joining all member states in their fight against crime. For us, the UK is a vital partner in security co-operation, not only in addressing dissidents in the context of Northern Ireland but also, because of its size and geographical proximity, we have more interaction with the UK criminal justice system than any other jurisdiction. Of particular importance for us is the European arrest warrant. I cannot overstate its importance in improving the arrangements for the extradition of wanted persons within the European Union. It addressed all the failings associated with the 1957 Council of Europe Convention on Extradition and means extradition is a relatively straightforward procedure that now takes months rather than years and avoids political issues. I would be very concerned if the UK did not continue its participation in the European arrest warrant system as it would have very significant and serious implications for security co-operation. I am heartened by the consistent statements of the UK Government reinforced by the emphasis in Prime Minister May’s letter that security co-operation is one of her top priorities. However, I am still concerned about the lack of detail on how the UK intends to reconcile maintaining such high levels of security co-operation with their plans to withdraw from the European Union. Negotiating new instruments for police and judicial co-operation can be a lengthy and complex process. The Prime Minister referred in her letter to the need to avoid cliff edges and refers to implementation periods to adjust in a smooth and orderly way to new arrangements. Maintaining this level of co-operation is in everyone’s interest and keeps everyone safer. We have a special interest in ensuring that the closest possible co-operation takes place. In the context of the EU-UK negotiations, we will be pressing that the UK exit should not result in any let-up in our work to tackle serious crime and terrorist threats.

I will turn now to the close links between Ireland and the United Kingdom and to Border issues and Northern Ireland. We all know the background to the common travel area arrangements which are bilateral, between the two States, and they predate our accession to the European Union. We know about the reciprocity of rights so I will not go into detail on those. We are all very clear about the rights of residents such as the right to vote in parliamentary elections, the access to various services and that they do not require work permits. We are also aware of the arrangements that exist here for UK citizens. Part of these arrangements was the decision that there should be no border control obligations on people travelling within the common travel area. To facilitate this, there are various arrangements in place to protect the interests of both the UK and Ireland while allowing the free movement of persons across our mutual borders. This is recognised in protocols 19 and 20. Ireland and the UK were specifically excluded from the obligation to participate in the Schengen arrangements. It is our intention to remain outside the Schengen area and to continue to avail of protocols 19 and 20 to maintain the common travel area arrangements with the UK. The UK has also said it wishes to maintain the common travel area arrangements and this is repeated. It is particularly important as we all know in the context of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

I have touched on specific issues raised in the Article 50 letter issued by Prime Minister May. However, her letter is not exhaustive in terms of all the issues. My Department has gone through every EU instrument falling within our remit, which amounted to more than 700 instruments.

As part of our preparations for this day, each was examined and the implications of a UK withdrawal assessed. We have identified the key priorities for the forthcoming negotiations and considered what alternative measures may be relevant. However, we can only progress our preparations so far in the absence of an indication of what position the UK will take.

I will briefly touch on issues not yet raised by the UK. Those living on the Border are probably more conscious of the practical day-to-day advantages brought about by the EU than most. Within the remit of my Department, there are many EU instruments dealing with the cross-Border aspects of, for example, the recognition and enforcement of judgments, family law and recovery of maintenance payments. These issues have not been highlighted by the UK and there are no indications to date as to what its plans are in that regard. This also applies to asylum policy. We have a co-ordinated approach currently, but there is no indication of what the UK is thinking for the future. Any change could have significant effects on us because of the common travel area and our proximity to the UK.

Another issue of which we need to be conscious is that of the new data protection regime that will apply within the EU and to law enforcement. This is not just a justice issue. Rather, it has implications over a wide range of services, including banking, insurance and payrolls. The exchange of data with UK-based bodies will be severely curtailed if the UK does not maintain a data protection regime that is equivalent to that in the EU. The new EU regime will apply before the UK leaves and one presumes that the UK will maintain the regime on departure, but that is something that will have to be watched closely.

The Government will shortly publish a consolidated paper providing more detail on the four main priority areas of minimising impact on trade and the economy, protecting the Northern Ireland peace process, maintaining the common travel area and influencing the future of the EU. We have prepared comprehensively for the invocation of Article 50 by the UK and it is positive that the UK has emphasised its desire for close co-operation with the EU on security matters. However, the detail of what the UK is going to be looking for in the justice and home affairs area has yet to be set out. The sooner the UK's proposals are made known, the sooner we can make progress on many of these vital matters, some of which I have outlined and will have serious implications for our citizens.

See this speech in context