Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When we discussed Athenry with Apple renewable energy was not an issue it raised. It raised concerns about planning and legal delays, eirgrid connections, and who would build the substations on its site in Athenry. It did not raise concerns about renewable energy as something that was delaying that project in any way. I appreciate that does not fit the Deputy's narrative but that is the truth.

In response to Deputy Doherty's questions, the undocumented Irish did not feature because I met only one politician, the Mayor of San Francisco, and as the Deputy knows, San Francisco is a sanctuary city so I did not particularly need to convince him of our position on it. That is, however, something that is being pursued very intensively by Deputy Deasy at the moment. It was also a feature of my discussions with the US acting ambassador yesterday who I met in Government Buildings. The difficulty, as I am sure most people appreciate, is that it would be difficult to secure some form of arrangement to regularise the undocumented Irish in America in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, in other words, to ask for an arrangement for the Irish that would not then apply to El Salvadorians and Colombians and people from other countries. That is the difficulty at the moment. If there were comprehensive immigration reform I think we could do it but looking for a special deal for Ireland is difficult.

That does not mean that we will not continue to pursue it and to see what we can offer in return that might make it possible.

The anticipated date for the referendum to extend voting rights in presidential elections to Irish citizens living outside the Twenty-six Counties is still 2019. It would not be possible to have this done in time for the next presidential election and it does not make sense to elect a President using a different franchise, so we intend to hold the referendum after the presidential election in 2018. Therefore, the referendum will be in 2019.

On Deputy Paul Murphy's questions, I disagree with many of the Trump Administration's policies, particularly on migration, climate change and North Korea. I am not as well-informed as Deputy Murphy is on Yemen, but it is something I will read up on. I will not attack President Trump personally. I do not believe doing so would bring about a change in policy and it would not benefit us as a country to do so. If I have the opportunity to meet him in March, I intend to raise some of the concerns which Ireland as a country has and the Government has on these areas.

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