Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think Parliament will be able to judge it but it is not like passing of legislation. It is a memorandum of understanding. We made a deliberate decision not to have a bilateral treaty on the common travel area because changing a bilateral treaty means going through the legislative process, which takes months. We have instead a memorandum of understanding which can be changed much more easily and quickly if we have missed something. It would be useful to share it with party leaders to make sure we have not missed anything. This is not something that we are precious about but I do not want to turn that memorandum of understanding into a series of new asks. This represents what has historically been in place and needs to be sustained and protected in the context of Brexit. I could not really share it with the House without sharing it with my Government colleagues first, and we only did that today.

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