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

This is an important and current issue. I believe we currently have a window of opportunity for a much-needed reset in EU-UK relations. I welcome the positive statements from the new UK Government about its desire to find a negotiated settlement on the protocol on Northern Ireland. We now need to see those sentiments turned into constructive engagement between the UK and the European Union. We need political will focused on finding jointly agreed solutions to issues of genuine concern to people and business in Northern Ireland.

It is positive that for the first time in over six months, the EU and British negotiation teams have resumed technical discussions at official level this week. Ireland fully supports the Commission’s approach to addressing the challenges around the implementation of the protocol.

Our early engagements with Prime Minister Truss and her team have been constructive. The Taoiseach and Prime Minister Truss had a good discussion in London on 18 September. I spoke with the new UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, and look forward to a substantive in-person meeting with him in London this evening. I also had a frank and substantive meeting with the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, in Belfast last week and we will meet again in London tomorrow for the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. The Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, spoke to his new UK counterpart, Leo Docherty, this morning.

The Taoiseach, the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and I continue to engage extensively with our EU counterparts, as would be expected. The Taoiseach remains in close contact with President von der Leyen and I speak regularly to Vice President Šefčovič, as has been the case throughout Brexit. I expect I will speak to him again this afternoon, before meeting James Cleverly this evening. There remains an unshakeable commitment across the EU to mitigating the impacts Brexit brings for this island.

The Government is in ongoing contact with key figures in the US Administration and Congress. I had the opportunity to speak briefly with President Biden in New York recently. We are very grateful for continued bipartisan US support for peace and stability in Northern Ireland throughout the Brexit process, including the President’s stance on the importance of negotiated EU-UK agreements on the protocol in order to protect the gains of the Good Friday Agreement.

Our consistent message in all these engagements has been to urge the British Government to re-engage with the European Union. Only joint solutions will be successful and sustainable. We need to focus as a priority on the issues of genuine concern to people and business in Northern Ireland, particularly around the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Working together, we can ensure certainty and stability and maximise the benefits of the protocol for all in Northern Ireland. I am focused on the formation of an Executive in Northern Ireland before the 28 October deadline. I have been clear with everyone that discussions on the protocol should proceed in parallel to the process of Executive formation.

The European Union remains committed to making the protocol work. There is sufficient flexibility within the protocol to address the issues of concern to people in Northern Ireland, in my view. While our engagements in recent weeks have been positive, it remains a fact that the British Government is proceeding with legislation which would, if enacted, disapply core elements of the protocol, amounting to a breach of international law. I have been very clear with my British counterparts that this unilateral approach does not help rebuild trust in the British-Irish relationship or the EU-UK relationship.

I firmly believe that joint solutions can be found to the genuine issues of concern on the protocol by the EU and the UK working together in a spirit of partnership. The Government and I will do everything we can to support those efforts. We currently have a real and renewed opportunity to resolve these issues and we will, as I said, do everything we can to take that opportunity. However, positive sentiment and a change in mood is one thing but actually delivering the compromises that are needed to get a result is another.

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