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

I can answer those questions directly because the answer is "Yes". That is what the withdrawal agreement was all about. It is what the Irish protocol and the legislation we passed here, and the British Government passed in Westminster, was about too, in respect of protecting the common travel area, and ensuring we protect access for students North and South into each other's universities and cross-Border healthcare co-operation. We spent many months putting together the pieces to ensure we could provide that kind of reassurance. We went as far as saying the Government would, if necessary, pay for students in Northern Ireland being able to access Erasmus+ programmes, even after the UK, including Northern Ireland, leaves the EU. We also got a protocol agreed that will allow the Irish economy to function as an all-island economy, even though there are two jurisdictions. That will allow people to move and to work. There will be no checks on the Border - I do not know how many times I have to say that - unless the British Government decides to go back on everything it has committed to.

It has signed up to a protocol and it has said it will implement that protocol. It is an international agreement with the EU and there is no suggestion, despite the fact there is a difference of approach in these negotiations on the future relationship, that there is any rowing back on a willingness to take on board the legal obligations that go with that protocol. People who are working on both sides of the Border and moving every day, students who are doing likewise, people who are visiting the doctor and people who are going to shop will be able to continue to do that, even after this transition period. That is what the protocol is all about. It is to make sure we do not have the political and social consequences of an attempt to reimpose a physical border between North and South and between South and North. In many ways, that was what held up a Brexit agreement for months, as Deputy Harkin will know from her time in the European Parliament as well as in this House. It became an international discussion, not just an Irish and a British discussion.

I want to try to give Members reassurance on that, but that said, if we do not manage to get agreement on level playing field issues and on facilitating tariff-free and quote-free trade, we will have a much more complex east-west trading relationship between Ireland and Britain. Let us not forget that in a normal year, when we are not dealing with the consequences of Covid-19, that is worth more than €60 billion in trade both ways. That is more than €1 billion per week and that trade is responsible for employing about 200,000 people on this side of the Irish Sea. That is what we are trying to protect here. Many of the issues North-South and in the Border counties are comprehensively dealt with in that Northern Irish-Irish protocol and we have to focus on full implementation of that protocol, whether there is a deal or there is no deal towards the end of the year, to deal with the all-island questions.

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