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

I thank the Deputy for an opportunity to put a number of things on the record in relation to the Government's approach to Brexit. I shall first turn to the veto issue. The talk of whether or not Ireland uses a veto misunderstands the reality we currently find ourselves in. There is very strong solidarity across the European Union between 27 countries, including Ireland, around what is required to allow this process to move on to opening up phase two, which is about future relationships, trade and transition arrangement etc. The idea of whether or not Ireland will stand alone and use its veto actually misunderstands the fact that we are standing with another 26 countries at the moment. Yesterday I spoke with the German foreign minister who reconfirmed that position. I also spoke with the Luxembourg foreign minister who reconfirmed that position. When I represented the Taoiseach in Brussels last week I got that point reinforced to me, very strongly. I spent over an hour with Michel Barnier last week who also said that the EU's challenge is Ireland's challenge. They will not abandon Ireland on this issue. This is why we are working together to ensure that three areas that require substantial progress actually deliver that progress.

Clearly there has been a lot of progress although there is still some work to do on citizens' rights issues. Then there are the Irish issues. There has been very good progress on the common travel area. We have had deep discussions and a lot of very detailed work has been done in ensuring Ireland can maintain, in full, the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement on this island. That has posed very challenging questions on how we manage the Border questions in the future. How do we ensure that we can protect what we enjoy today, which is largely an invisible border that has developed over time and which has allowed the normalisation of relationships through trade and movement on the island? How do we protect that in the context of Brexit? We have very strong support in doing this, as I have already said. Between now and the meeting on 14 December we are looking for a language that reflects the need for credibility around how we are to approach this issue and solve it during phase two and the parameters within which that can be done. We will not have all of the answers by the middle of December but we are looking for significantly more clarity than we currently have from the British negotiating team in order to support, with the other 26 countries and with Michel Barnier, the move to open phase two of the negotiations. I believe that most people would like see phase two happen sooner rather than later given the uncertainty that remains in the absence of phase two beginning.

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