Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Great. She is more than capable.

I hope we will be able to do this at different stages as the Brexit negotiations proceed. It is good to keep the House, the various other forums and the public informed of our position because the enormity of these issues for Ireland in the future is such that this is required. We will have an all-island forum on Brexit on Thursday and I presume some of the other Deputies will be there.

I welcome this two-day debate on Brexit. It is an issue that deserves the attention of this House given the unprecedented economic, political and diplomatic challenges it poses for Ireland. The Oireachtas is playing a central role in furthering the public debate on Brexit and the implications thereof for this country. The address by Michel Barnier to the joint sitting of the Houses last May and Guy Verhofstadt's exchange with the joint committees last week were important milestones and provided a positive contribution to our work. We need to continue to intensify this work in the coming weeks and months.

The Brexit negotiations are entering a critical and more intensive stage. Issues unique to Ireland - protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the peace process, avoiding a hard border and maintaining the common travel area - are at the heart of the negotiations. This is the result of a sustained political and diplomatic effort that has won us the support and understanding of our EU partners. Sufficient progress must be made on these Irish-specific issues, as well as on the questions of citizens' rights and the UK's financial liabilities, before the second-phase negotiations can begin on the framework for the future EU-UK relationship. This sequencing was agreed by both sides at the outset and is about building confidence and trust. It is also about laying foundations for future decisions. With the exception of the Irish-specific issues, the economic and other sectoral issues of most interest to Ireland will not be addressed until the second phase when we talk about a transition, future trade relationships and so on. This makes it particularly important that the conditions for moving to the next phase are met. It will be for the European Council to decide that sufficient progress and when it has been achieved.

In this regard, the speech last week by Prime Minister May - particularly the constructive tone of her remarks - was welcome, and it is important we state that. We were pleased to note the Prime Minister's commitment to protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the common travel area and to avoiding any physical infrastructure at the Border. That has been said before by the British Government but it was said very forcefully last week in Florence. The pledge to seek transition arrangements for Brexit - and the acknowledgement that business should only have to plan for one set of changes in the EU-UK relationship - is also very welcome, and that has not been stated in the past as explicitly as it was stated in Florence. A status quoarrangement which would see the UK remain a member of the Single Market and customs union during this transition, with the associated rights and obligations, would be sensible and would provide much-needed clarity for businesses on the island of Ireland as well as in Britain. It may well prove necessary for the UK to seek a longer transition phase than the two years suggested by Prime Minister May, considering the amount of work involved in preparing adequately for the consequences of Brexit, but this was a useful update on British thinking nonetheless.

The broader UK position, and the worthy aspirations I have mentioned, now need to be translated into firm commitments across the negotiating table in Brussels. I hope real progress can be made in the next two rounds of the negotiations so that we can move into the second phase next month. However, this very much depends on the UK and its willingness to move on a number of the exit issues. To be clear, there is no demand or expectation that these issues be settled in their entirety before phase two can begin, but they have to be advanced beyond where they are today.

As Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade with special responsibility for Brexit, I am co-ordinating the whole-of-Government response to the significant challenges that arise for Ireland. In this capacity, I am working closely with colleagues across Government with policy responsibility in relevant areas in order to assist affected sectors and regions in dealing with the many challenges resulting from Brexit. This co-operation also involves the appropriate State agencies and, I would like to think, the Opposition political parties too in terms of suggestions, proposals and constructive criticism. As part of this co-ordination role, I am also stepping up the overall strategic oversight of Brexit-related measures being implemented across Government. This will involve building upon the extensive cross-Government research, analysis and consultation with stakeholders that has been already carried out, as well as ensuring a co-ordinated approach that facilitates the early identification of potential synergies across Government. New interdepartmental co-ordination mechanisms are currently being put in place to reflect the enhanced responsibility of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in this regard.

Ensuring that Ireland’s interests are reflected in the EU’s approach to the ongoing EU-UK negotiations is a central dimension of Ireland’s strategic response to Brexit. In this regard, our overriding objective is to work with our EU 27 partners to achieve the closest possible relationship between the EU and the UK. The closer we come to this objective, the fewer negative consequences for Ireland and for the specific sectors to which many in this House are close.

Since the referendum last year we have prepared extensively to ensure that our priority issues - namely, protecting the gains of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, maintaining the common travel area, minimising the impact on our economy and a strong future for the EU itself - are advanced to the maximum extent possible. There have been three rounds of negotiations to date, with the fourth round taking place this week. In fact, it is my understanding the negotiations will be focusing on Ireland tomorrow. As this is the first phase of negotiations, and in line with the agreed sequencing, the focus has been on the withdrawal issues of citizens’ rights, the financial settlement, more technical separation issues and, as I said, issues unique to Ireland. Both the EU and UK have used these early rounds of negotiations to clarify their respective positions, highlighting the areas of agreement and divergence.

Discussions on several issues have been reasonably constructive to date, with some progress being made in the areas of citizens’ rights and the other separation issues. However, it is clear that many difficult and complex issues remain, above all with regard to the financial settlement. It is in this area that the least amount of progress has been made, at least up until the Florence speech. The UK has accepted that it will have a financial obligation to honour on its departure and the position set out by Prime Minister May in her speech last Friday will, hopefully, help to advance the issue. The EU’s position is also very clear. Intensive work is now required around the negotiating table in Brussels to find convergence between the two positions.

The EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his task force are well prepared for these negotiations, which are based both on the European Council guidelines and the more detailed negotiating directives agreed in the spring. This is in addition to the extensive and ongoing consultations they are holding with the 27 EU member states. Our team speaks to the task force virtually on a daily basis, mainly through our ambassador, H. E. Declan Kelleher, in Brussels, but also sometimes from Dublin. We are appreciative of the level of support that both the task force and our EU partners have shown for Ireland’s unique concerns, with Mr. Barnier reiterating after his meeting with me on 4 September that Ireland’s interests are the EU’s interests. I have been working very closely with Mr. Barnier and his team, as have officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to ensure that Ireland’s position is fully reflected in the negotiations. We will continue to engage closely with them in the weeks and months ahead.

On the Irish-specific issues, the high-level dialogue between the UK and EU teams is making some headway. Good progress has been made on the common travel area. There is a common objective to protect the gains of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement in all of its parts and while some progress has been made on this, much more complex work is required. In truth, when one looks at the Good Friday Agreement, in particular its North-South co-operation elements, the majority of those were written on the assumption, and in some cases refer directly to the assumption, that both North and South on the island of Ireland would be part of the same European Union in terms of the regulatory environment. What people are beginning to understand is the complexity of full implementation of all of the elements of the Good Friday Agreement while at the same time accepting Brexit.

I often give the example of an all-island approach on animal health. That makes perfect sense when farmers north and south of the Border both operate to the same Common Agricultural Policy, the same cross-compliance obligations, the same protection of the environment and water courses, the same animal health regulations and the same inspection systems. When Northern Ireland leaves the European Union and decides not to be part of the Common Agricultural Policy, or decides not to maintain equivalence with the Common Agricultural Policy, how do we in practice manage an all-island approach towards animal health in the case of, say, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease that may be just north of the Border but which certainly does not respect any physical border? These are the kinds of practical issues, and there are many examples like that. North-South co-operation works because there is a common regulatory model on both sides of the Border and it simply requires political co-operation to make it work in practice. Once the regulatory environment changes on one side of the Border, it becomes much more complex. That is why the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, to which the British Government is absolutely committed, as are we, is actually much more complicated in practice in the context of Brexit than many people realise.

This is all to ensure the full implications of the UK’s decision to leave the EU are understood, including on important, tangible areas that affect daily lives on this island, such as the North-South co-operation to which I have just referred, which are the focus of pretty intense discussions currently. In the last round of negotiations, which concluded on 31 August, the UK presented a paper on Ireland and Northern Ireland. While the publication of this paper is welcome, the UK’s aspirations and statements of principle need to be backed by substantive commitments by the UK and clear links to workable solutions. The Government welcomes and supports the task force’s paper, "Guiding principles for the Dialogue on Ireland-Northern Ireland", which was published on 7 September. This paper builds on the European Council guidelines agreed earlier this year and reflects the priority Irish issues identified by the Government. It also sets out the principles on which solutions have to be based. The EU will now seek to agree these principles with the UK as a basis for the future discussions on the detailed solutions that are required. We will continue to work closely with Mr. Barnier and his team to advance Ireland’s concerns in this regard.

Beyond the negotiating process, the Government’s overall response to Brexit will continue to be structured around five principal pillars: first, sustainable fiscal policies to ensure capacity to absorb and respond to economic shocks, not least from Brexit; second, policies to make Irish enterprise more diverse and resilient, to diversify trade and investment patterns and to strengthen competitiveness; third, prioritising policy measures and dedicating resources to protect jobs and businesses in the sectors and regions most affected and threatened by Brexit, as has already been happening in the agrifood area; fourth, realising economic opportunities arising from Brexit and helping businesses adjust to any new logistical or trade barriers that may be predicted or may arise; and fifth, making a strong case at EU level that Ireland will require support for the recognition that Brexit represents a serious disturbance to the Irish economy.

Policy decisions in support of these objectives will arise across a wide range of policy areas and will continue to fall within the direct responsibility of other Government colleagues, including the annual budgetary process, the forthcoming national planning framework 2040, the new ten-year national capital plan, the review of enterprise 2025 policy, and sectoral policies and investment decisions in areas such as agriculture, enterprise, transport, communications and energy.

I encourage Members to engage directly with me if they want to, and I encourage them to be very much part of the forums to be set up. We will have an all-island civic dialogue on Thursday. We will have sectors meetings, which I know that some Members have been part of, and we will also have stakeholder updates to make sure people are informed.

I will not behave in party political way on this issue. I hope that other Members will work with me in a constructive to try to find an outcome for Ireland that is workable in the context of a very complex environment. I look forward to working with everybody in that regard.

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