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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 17, inclusive, together.

I spoke by phone with Prime Minister May most recently on Wednesday, 6 December and again on Thursday, 7 December.

On both occasions we had good conversations as we took stock of the situation that unfolded on Monday, 4 December and the prospects of getting back to a point of satisfactory progress. I reiterated the firm Irish position regarding the text that had been agreed on Monday, 4 December.

On Friday morning, I was pleased to announce that, following further intensive negotiations, we had reached a satisfactory conclusion which did not involve any change to the guarantee regarding the Border we had secured earlier in the negotiations. In my statement on Friday, I said we had achieved all we set out to achieve in phase 1 of these negotiations, that we had the assurances and guarantees we needed from the United Kingdom and support for them from the European Union. I am satisfied sufficient progress has been made on the Irish issues. The parameters have been set and they are good.

It remains a matter for the European Council, however, to decide later this week whether it is satisfied to accept the recommendation of the European Commission that sufficient progress has been achieved on all three phase 1 issues. Assuming that happens, we can move on to the work necessary to convert the commitments made last week into the necessary provisions in the withdrawal agreement, which will be an international agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom. We also want to begin discussions about transition arrangements and the new relationship between the EU and the UK in phase 2.

We will remain fully engaged and vigilant throughout the next period of work. As I stated last Friday, this is not the end; it is the beginning of the end and there is much to be done in respect of Brexit. Throughout, we participated in these discussions as part of the EU 27. I have also spoken with the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on several occasions. Irish officials were also in contact with the EU task force over the intensive period of negotiations in recent weeks, as well as engaging with other EU institutions like the European Parliament and member states for support. We were also in bilateral contact with the UK at political and official level. While these contacts were focused primarily on finding a way forward in the negotiations, the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, and I remain in agreement on the importance of ensuring close ongoing bilateral Ireland-UK relations. I was not party to any discussions between the UK Prime Minister and the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, MLA, in respect of the EU-UK negotiations, nor did I speak directly with the DUP leader over the course of the intensive negotiation period of the past two weeks. We last spoke on 12 November.

The Article 50 process is a negotiation between the EU 27 on the one hand and the UK Government on the other. As such, it is a process that involves sovereign Governments rather than individual political parties in any of the relevant jurisdictions. In the same way, neither I nor my officials had a role in any decision made about sharing a draft text with the DUP. Given the nature of the negotiation structure, that was entirely a matter for the UK Government.

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