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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 13, inclusive, together.

I last saw the British Prime Minister, Mrs. May, on the margins of the special European Council meeting on 10 April. At that meeting, the Prime Minister presented her case for a further extension of the Article 50 deadline. The House is aware that the European Council agreed to an extension of the deadline to 31 October, provided that the UK participates in the European Parliament elections next month.

Prior to that meeting, I spoke to the Prime Minister by phone on the evening of 8 April 2019 when we discussed her letter to Donald Tusk seeking an extension and preparations for the summit. During our discussion, I repeated to the Prime Minister my openness to an extension of the Article 50 deadline.

I welcome the agreement reached last week between the EU 27 and the UK on the Brexit extension. I firmly believe that ratification of the withdrawal agreement by the House of Commons is in all our interests and I hope the time extension will be used to enable the deal to be agreed. Approval of the withdrawal agreement is the best way to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to avoid a hard border. I was pleased to have the continued support of my fellow European Council members on this objective.

Prior to this, I had a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister in Brussels at the time of the European Council on 21 March, as I previously reported to the House during Taoiseach's Questions on 27 March and in my statement to the House on the European Council meeting on the same date. Officials in my Department are in regular contact with their British counterparts on a range of issues, including Brexit, as are colleagues from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including the ambassador and his team in London.

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