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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3, to 9, inclusive, together.

I met the Estonian Prime Minister, Mr. Jüri Ratas, during his official visit to Ireland on 31 January. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Estonian independence. As a small EU member state approaching its own centenary, I congratulated the Prime Minister on Estonia's achievement and on the dynamic space it has created for itself in modern Europe.

Ireland and Estonia are like-minded on many issues, and we exchanged views on further intensifying our co-operation across the EU agenda. This is particularly important in light of the debate on the future of Europe. Our approaches are similar. We both believe the EU needs an ambitious approach with a focus on implementing measures in areas that directly benefit our citizens' daily lives. This means, for example, that we want to see completion of the Single Market, the digital Single Market, the capital markets union and the banking union. We want to develop our trade relations with other parts of the world beyond the European Union.

Estonia and Ireland have worked especially closely together on the digital agenda. The Prime Minister and I agreed to continue our co-operation here, and we discussed some innovative new ideas, such as e-prescriptions. We also, of course, discussed the Brexit negotiations. I thanked Prime Minister Ratas for his support for our unique concerns, and highlighted the need to ensure that the commitments and principles agreed in December are translated into legal text in the withdrawal agreement, which is under negotiation. We welcomed the negotiating directives on transitional arrangements that were agreed by foreign and Europe Ministers on 29 January, and looked forward to starting negotiations on these with the UK, as the EU 27. We both agreed that the future relationship between the EU and the UK should be as close as possible while ensuring a level playing field and protecting the integrity of the Single Market.

The Prime Minister and I discussed a range of other EU issues, including security and defence, where Estonia has some real concerns and where I noted our decision to participate in the permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, as a founding member, and the EU budget, where we agreed on the need to ensure continued funding for agriculture and cohesion and to be open to looking at funding other new areas.

Engagement with our EU and international partners is crucial to Ireland's interests, particularly as Brexit advances and as we seek to form alliances around a range of issues. I travelled to Vienna on 8 February where I had a bilateral meeting with the new Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz. We discussed several issues of shared interest, including the forthcoming Austrian Presidency in the second half of this year.

I also had the opportunity to meet the Austrian President, the Foreign Minister and the European Affairs Minister.

I have not yet had an opportunity to speak with Chancellor Merkel since the conclusion of government formation negotiations. As the House is aware, Chancellor Merkel and I had a bilateral meeting last June and I look forward to meeting her in the near future once a new government is established in Germany.

I have met and spoken with Prime Minister May on several occasions, including most recently yesterday in Belfast where we assessed the state of play in the negotiations to restore the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly and encouraged the parties to reach an agreement so that functioning institutions can commence work again in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland. We are hopeful that the two main parties will be able to come to agreement this week allowing other parties to join thereafter and establish an inclusive Executive for Northern Ireland. We also discussed Brexit and I made clear that we want and expect to see the agreement reached in December fully reflected in the withdrawal agreement. This means spelling out the regulatory alignment option in detail but does not preclude exploring the other options proposed by the UK Government in parallel. This is option B.

I will meet with President Mattarella of Italy tomorrow during his state visit to Ireland. On 23 February, I will attend an informal summit of EU Heads of State and Government in Brussels as part of President Tusk's leaders' agenda.

I also plan to visit the US for the traditional St. Patrick's Day celebrations. This provides a unique opportunity for us to advance our interests with a country with which we have deep connections and many shared interests. I look forward to the visit during which I will meet with President Trump in Washington DC.

I will attend meetings of the European Council in Brussels on 22 and 23 March and on 28 and 29 June. As usual, I will report to the House both before and after those meetings. I also hope to attend an informal EU summit which has been scheduled to take place in Sofia in Bulgaria on 17 May. Further bilateral engagements are being planned, including a visit to Dublin by the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel. I will, of course, announce these when they are finalised.

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