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

Phase 2 of the Brexit talks is very much happening in the background and behind the scenes at the moment. It will be this way until the end of February or March. We negotiate as the European Union. We were successful in the outcome of the phase 1 talks because we stuck to the position of not negotiating bilaterally but negotiating as part of the EU 27. For that reason, and having assessed the last few months, I do not believe it would be wise for any EU Head of Government to differ publicly on the EU's negotiating position or to speculate too much. I can say that our objective is to ensure the guarantees in the UK-EU report agreed in December and to make sure they are made legally binding in the withdrawal agreements, which is essential over the next few weeks. We want a transition period to give businesses and individuals a chance to adjust to any permanent changes. It will be around two years or that is what is being considered.

On the future EU-UK relationship, of course we want free trade in goods and services to remain as it is now but not in a way that undermines the Single Market. We are very much open to the possibility or idea of unique arrangement for Northern Ireland, but only if it is needed. If the EU-UK relationship is close enough it may not be needed. That is there as a back-stop.

I did not inform the House of my meeting with Mr. Orbán because at that stage it had not been arranged. It was not confirmed until the middle of December. It is important to point out that Mr. Orbán is a democratically-elected Prime Minister of Hungary and we are aligned on a number of very important issues such as Brexit, a future close relationship with the UK and on tax. Hungary and Bulgaria, which I also visited, both have lower tax rates than Ireland. They can be important allies for Ireland when it comes to corporation profit tax. The two countries very much agree with free trade and free enterprise; they are not protectionist. We are, of course, not aligned on other issues. I raised the issues, for example, on the law on non-government organisations, NGOs, the restrictions on academic freedom and the issue of Hungary not accepting its fair share of refugees. I believe in engagement, however, even with prime ministers and presidents with whom one might not fully agree. I am delighted that Deputies Howlin and Micheál Martin, who raised this also believe in engagement, often with leaders with whom they might not fully agree. On 18 October when visiting the Communist Party of China on the occasion of its 19th congress, Deputy Howlin took the opportunity, on behalf of the Labour Party, to "extend fraternal greetings and best wishes to the leaders of the Communist Party of China." These are fraternal greetings to a Government that is not elected and around which perhaps there are some concerns regarding human rights and executions and so on. Deputy Martin, when he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, had to engage on many occasions with people he did not necessarily agree with.

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