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

I thank the Deputy for his question.

We had a very good engagement on that issue. Both sides recognised that the EU post-Brexit will be very different. We are simply not going to see British Ministers as often because they will not be around the EU negotiating tables with us. Even with the Good Friday Agreement structures, there was an acceptance on both sides that we needed to go beyond that. The idea that we were developing at the time - myself and David Lidington were the key people co-chairing the BIIGC - was that we were developing this concept which some other EU countries have, for example, France and Germany, and Portugal and Spain, whereby they would have an annual intergovernmental conference-engagement. We would look to do that every second year in the UK and Ireland, led by the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister but also involving at least half a dozen Ministers in key areas. We are still committed to that approach. There has of course been a change in British Government and personalities. I am hoping that we will have a BIIGC in the next six weeks or so and that we can get back to focusing on that new structure in terms of making it happen.

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