Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the Tánaiste. As the Deputies may be aware, he is in Derry today, meeting community politicians and business leaders in relation to Northern Ireland, the peace process, events in Derry and Brexit. The Tánaiste is certainly working hard on the Brexit situation and to ensure that the institutions in Northern Ireland can get back on track again.

I thank the three Deputies for raising this issue. I assure Deputy Kenny that both the Irish embassies in London and Brussels, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, all Government Departments and the Taoiseach are monitoring the situation in the UK and Brussels very closely. It is not as if we are not dealing with these issues. We are doing so.

Regarding the Topical Issue itself, the EU's position is quite clear on this. The back stop solution, as proposed in the draft protocol in Ireland and Northern Ireland, is fully workable. It aims to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and to protect both North-South co-operation and the integrity of the customs union and the Single Market. Some progress has been made on the draft protocol in the negotiations that immediately proceeded the European Council meeting in March. This was recorded in an annotated, colour-coded version of the draft withdrawal agreement published by the European Commission task force on 19 March. This reflects the agreement on some articles of the draft text, including the common travel area and other areas of North-South co-operation.

During the negotiations, the United Kingdom also accepted that a legally-operative version of the backstop for the Border will be included in the withdrawal agreement in line with paragraph 49 of the joint progress report agreed last December and that all the issues identified in the draft protocol reflect those that must be addressed. These were important steps forward.

Since the March European Council, intensive negotiations have been continuing between the EU and UK teams with a view to narrowing the remaining gaps in respect of the draft protocol and other withdrawal issues. Irish officials have been involved in some of these meetings where the task force believes this would be helpful. We will continue to work closely with the task force.

The European Council is continuing to follow the negotiations closely and will return at its next meeting in June to the remaining withdrawal issues, including the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and the framework for the future relationship. The European Union has also made clear that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and that negotiations can only progress as long as all commitments undertaken are respected in full. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade has met several of his EU counterparts in recent weeks and received a strong message of their commitment to this principle and their continuing solidarity with Ireland. The Tánaiste will also make clear the position of the Government and the European Union to Mr. David Lidington when he meets him tomorrow.

I am delighted that the European Union's chief negotiator on Brexit, Mr. Michel Barnier, will visit Ireland next week. This is a further indication of the commitment of Mr. Barnier and his team to taking account of Ireland's concerns. Mr. Barnier will meet the Taoiseach and Tánaiste and engage with a wide range of stakeholders at the all-island civic dialogue in Dundalk.

The EU has been clear that there must be significant progress on agreeing the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland by June and that the backstop on avoiding a hard border set out in the protocol is a legally workable solution.

To respond to the specific query raised by the Deputies concerning the leak of the so-called EU memorandum, I have no intention of commenting on press articles based on leaks. I assure the House, however, that the so-called memo or note alluded to is not a European Commission document, nor does it reflect the position of the European Union in any way. We cannot comment on every newspaper article. Our focus is on Brexit and on ensuring we secure the best solution for Ireland.

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