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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 6, inclusive, together.

I delivered an address on the future of Europe at the Catholic University of Leuven as part of its Wilfried Martens series of lectures. This is an annual event, with previous speakers including Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and former German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.

The event was live-streamed and the text of my speech is available online. My speech covered the many achievements of the European Union, the benefits for Ireland of EU membership and my thoughts about the future direction of the Union, including the importance of completing the Single Market and digital Single Market and working together to deliver concrete benefits for our citizens.

I also spoke about developments in the negotiations on Brexit. In my address, I emphasised the need for an ambitious and positive approach to our discussions about the future of Europe, and the importance of maintaining our core EU values and principles, such as respect for human dignity, personal and economic freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights. I noted that many of the challenges we face - climate change, cyber security, illegal migration, international trade and the regulation of major corporations - cannot be resolved by 28 states coming up with 20 different solutions, and that we need to work together to respond to these challenges effectively. I also emphasised the importance of our relations with the rest of the world, including Africa and the western Balkans, and noted my intention to participate in the western Balkans summit in Sofia next week.

I stressed the importance of communicating and engaging with our citizens on key issues relating to the future of Europe. From Ireland's perspective, I outlined our citizens' dialogue, which I launched last November and is being led by the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and explained that the intention of this has been to facilitate an open and wide-ranging debate with our citizens, which will help to inform our approach into the future.

On Brexit, I noted the particular issues arising for Ireland and the need to preserve the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts and the gains of the peace process, including power sharing in Northern Ireland and North-South co-operation. I noted the commitment to translate into the legal text of the withdrawal agreement the principles and commitments agreed between the EU and the UK last December, including in respect of the Border, and stressed the need to make real and solid progress on this before the June European Council.

After the speech, I attended a reception in the university where I had the opportunity to meet a range of academics and students, including Irish students studying there.

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