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

I will take the questions in reverse.

Deputy Gannon asked about the Good Friday Agreement and how we would assess it now. I think it has been a great success despite its failures or limitations. It has given us three things, one of which is peace, and almost everyone in Northern Ireland accepts that political objectives can be pursued only by peaceful means. There is agreement on consent that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but we can have unification if a majority both North and South want that. There is also the parity of esteem principle, that is, that people can be British, Irish or both and should be accepted as such. If everyone had accepted that 100 years ago, 50 years ago or even 30 years ago, many fewer people would have died violently and many of the terrible things that happened would not have happened. Unfortunately, some did not accept that until 25 years ago, although they do now.

What is disappointing is that the agreement has not lived up to its promise, which was functioning power-sharing institutions that would evolve over time into more normal forms of government. That has not happened, but the next step has to be to try to get the institutions back up and running, and I believe that is possible. As other Deputies have said, people in Northern Ireland face very real everyday problems, whether it is the cost of living, housing, health or issues with the public finances. These are very similar problems to the ones we face here, sometimes worse, sometimes better. It is right that the institutions should be up and running as soon as possible. I have always said that having an agreement on the protocol would not necessarily mean that the institutions would be re-established, but the reverse is also true. It is still possible for the institutions to be re-established even if the DUP does not fully accept the Windsor Framework, but that is ultimately the DUP's call. I hope it makes a favourable call on that in the coming weeks or months but I cannot speak for the DUP, nor should I try to do so. I know there is ongoing contact between the DUP and the UK Government about its domestic legislation, but certainly when it comes to any changes to the Northern Ireland Act, it is really important that all five major parties are fully consulted. We should recognise the fact that there are five major parties in Northern Ireland.

There will be a vote in the House of Commons tonight. We will see how that turns out. The Windsor Framework was agreed at EU level just yesterday, at the General Affairs Council, and we will discuss it at European Council level, at Heads of Government level, on Thursday and Friday, with a view to putting something into the conclusions. We would like to see the result of the vote tonight before then. Pending that vote, I will not say any more than that.

We are in touch with the UK authorities about the new electronic transit authorisation, ETA. Irish citizens, UK citizens and people permanently resident in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland will be exempt from that, but it could cause problems for tourists, particularly those who do not need a visa to come here, that is, tourists from other parts of the European Union who might come to Dublin or Cork or some other part of this jurisdiction who would then need to get the electronic authorisation to travel north. It will not be a hard thing to do but it is an additional barrier and not something that is welcome. Certainly, when I was tourism Minister, working with my counterpart at the time, Arlene Foster, we sold the idea that people can visit any part of Ireland, and why not take a day trip from Dublin to the Causeway coast or why not fly into Belfast and travel south? That will be more complicated now, and we will have to explain to potential tourists coming to the island of Ireland that there is this new complication. It is just an additional complication that we could do without, unfortunately. We will continue to work with the British Government on that issue and see if we can get further changes.

In response to Deputy Tóibín's question, I am not up to date on that issue of the documents sought from the Garda but I will get my office to look into it and revert to him on it if that commitment was made by Deputy Micheál Martin as Taoiseach. I will definitely follow up on that and see if there is something we can do to move that along.

The US visit will definitely be a good opportunity to engage informally with the five party leaders to talk about how they thought things would develop. One person I would like to mention, based on the comments earlier about different US Presidents' interests in Ireland, is Jimmy Carter. I think people will know that former President Jimmy Carter is in poor health at the moment. As part of my research before travelling over, I learned a bit more about the period when he was President. He was probably the first President who looked at the situation in Ireland and Northern Ireland a little differently. Previously, the US had been extremely close to the UK for lots of different reasons. Generally, the direction from the State Department had been that anything happening in Northern Ireland was an internal matter for the United Kingdom. He was the first US President to change that. I just want to acknowledge him for that reason.

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