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

This year on 1 January we saw the single largest change in relations between the EU and UK for many decades as the transition period ended and the new framework of the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement took effect. This House knows all too well that Ireland is the EU member state most affected by this change. I warmly welcome that Deputies today have the opportunity to make statements on this important issue that affects all Irish citizens and businesses throughout the country. I look forward to engaging with Deputies in a questions-and-answers session tomorrow on these issues in more detail. Next week, this House will be invited to vote on a motion in support of the agreement reached. I sincerely hope we will have strong support from all parties in this House for the motion.

With that in mind, it is important to recall how we got to where we are today and what the agreement means for Ireland. It might seem difficult to believe, but this time last year the EU had not yet finalised our shared negotiating mandate. The negotiations began in earnest only in March, leaving nine short months for the vast task of creating an entirely new legal framework for our relationship with the UK. This was no easy task, especially when the EU and UK approached these issues with what were often different levels of ambition and preferred outcomes and given the severe logistical challenges occasioned by the pandemic. We have been extraordinarily fortunate in the leadership provided to the EU negotiating team by Michel Barnier. I am delighted he will be recognised later this week by the European Movement Ireland organisation as "European of the Year". I am also keen to recognise, as others have, the extraordinary solidarity Ireland has received from other EU leaders and the role this Taoiseach and his predecessor have played to get this outcome.

For long periods of the negotiations the two sides were so far apart on many issues, including key issues of principle. Some doubted whether it would be possible to bridge the gap at all. I said on a number of occasions that a failure to reach agreement would have been a failure of politics and statecraft. Now that an agreement is indeed in place, it is perhaps too easy to forget how damaging the alternative of a no-deal scenario would have been, especially for Ireland. Both sides worked hard to find arrangements that respected our different approaches. The agreement reached is fundamentally in our interest, not least because the alternative was effectively a breakdown in relations that would have been fundamental.

As the Government motion notes, with the trade and co-operation agreement, the withdrawal agreement and the protocol now in place, Ireland's key Brexit objectives have been achieved. We have protected the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the peace process, including avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. The trade and co-operation agreement has ensured the best possible outcome for trade and the economy, including tariff-free and quota-free trade for qualifying goods, strong provisions to protect fair competition and the protection of Ireland's place in the Single Market. We have a platform for continued co-operation in key areas such as policing, energy and transport as well as the UK's continued participation in important EU programmes, including PEACE PLUS. The maintenance of the common travel area is also explicitly recognised in both agreements.

There are areas in which we would have wished to have closer co-operation and greater levels of ambition, not least with the outcome on fisheries. The EU offered a much closer trading relationship - others have referred to this - and a continuation of existing fishing arrangements. The UK preferred otherwise. The challenges some stakeholders face today are a consequence of this British choice. I assure people that we will continue to work closely with those impacted negatively to ensure they can navigate the new arrangements successfully and are supported in every way possible.

No agreement could ever have replaced the UK's membership of the EU. As we have said for many months, the UK's insistence that it was leaving the Single Market meant that certain things were inevitable and unavoidable. Even with this agreement, there are new layers of complication in the EU-UK relationship that many - those in industry in particular - are now having to adapt to, especially around processes for moving goods, SPS checks, health certificates, customs declarations, safety certificates and more. This means trade is far from as smooth as it would have been previously.

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We worked for several years to put the most comprehensive preparations possible in place for this change, from infrastructure to financial supports to step-by-step guides for the new rules. Now that these changes are upon us, we continue to work hand in hand with stakeholders to manage the disruption and the new realities they face. Brexit means change and challenges, but we face these together and with the support and resilience brought by our continued membership of the EU and its Single Market of more than 450 million consumers.

After several years of sustained and unprecedented political and sectoral focus on Brexit, we must now look forward. We must play a leadership role in shaping and developing our common European Union. We must promote and protect the values that are at the core of our shared European project. We must collectively deepen our alliances and friendships with our fellow member states. We must build a thriving, innovative and sustainable economic model though which our people can achieve their full potential. We must also reinvent our relationship with our closest neighbour, the United Kingdom, and the Government will be focused on that as well as the EU challenges we will face in the future.

I commend the motion to the House and I look forward to the questions tomorrow. I know there is a proposed amendment to the motion. I ask Sinn Féin to reconsider this approach. The Government is more than happy to talk to all parties about what we are trying to do to ensure we provide all the supports we can to the fisheries sector, but the idea that we would support an amendment today which calls for an effective redesign of the Common Fisheries Policy distracts from the core message we are trying to deliver here, which is that the Irish Parliament is united in supporting the deal that has been struck when everything is taken into account. Nobody is working harder than me and the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to try to ensure there is a fair burden-sharing approach towards lost fishing opportunities and that there are the necessary financial supports and compensation for fishing communities that have lost fishing opportunities. I strongly encourage those who propose to amend the motion to think again. We have been strong because we have been united as a country on the clear messages we send to others in the European Union and to those in the British Government about what Ireland is achieving and has tried to achieve through these negotiations and the deal that was struck. Let us try to continue in that mould and to work together to ensure we protect fishing interests as best we can in the context of this deal. I look forward to Members' questions and comments tomorrow. I am happy to provide more detailed answers if they are necessary.

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