Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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27. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the preparations being made with the UK to maintain the common travel area and all associated reciprocal rights; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28001/18]

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister to outline the preparations being made with the UK to maintain the common travel area and all associated reciprocal rights and if he will outline what conversations and discussions he has had with the UK in that regard, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for this question. The common travel area is a long-standing arrangement between the UK and Ireland, which means Irish citizens can move freely to live, work and study in the UK on the same basis as UK citizens and vice versa. It is an arrangement that is valued by both islands and the continuation of this arrangement is a stated objective of the Irish and UK Governments. In the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, it is important that any arrangements necessary to maintain the common travel area are made.

The common travel area provides for associated rights and entitlements which enable Irish and UK citizens to move freely between and reside in both jurisdictions. These rights and entitlements include access to employment, healthcare, education and social benefits, as well as the right to vote in certain elections. I benefitted from those rights when studying in the UK.

Article 2 of the draft protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, within the draft withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK, is a translation into legal terms of the acknowledgment between the EU and UK negotiators, made in their joint report of December 2017, that the UK and Ireland may continue to make arrangements between themselves relating to the movement of persons between their territories. This has been marked as green, indicating that it has been agreed at negotiator level, and it is a welcome provision in seeking to maintain the common travel area insofar as it relates to the EU-UK negotiations.

The maintenance of the common travel area is a bilateral matter. Work is ongoing with the UK and domestically to ensure that the necessary provisions are made in both jurisdictions in order that the common travel area continues to function effectively after the UK leaves the EU. Work at official level will continue so as to ensure that the legal and administrative bases necessary to maintain the common travel area are in place and to safeguard the entitlement of Irish citizens to access these associated rights in the UK and that of British citizens to do so in Ireland.

I brought forward a briefing note for the Cabinet on this issue last week in the context of the broader Brexit discussions we had within Government. We have multiple Departments working together to ensure that we take the necessary legal and policy decisions to ensure that the common travel area, as we enjoy it today, continues post Brexit.

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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As the Tánaiste outlined, the common travel area, CTA, allows free movement of British and Irish citizens between the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and provides access to various government services in each country in terms of healthcare, education and voting rights in certain elections. We welcome the fact that there has been agreement from all sides to maintain the common travel area.

The importance of maintaining the common travel area was acknowledged by Prime Minister May in her letter of 29 March 2017 triggering Article 50, the joint EU-UK progress report agreed at the European Council on 15 December 2017 and in the protocol to the draft withdrawal agreement published by the Commission on 28 February 2018. Although the CTA predates both Ireland's and the UK’s membership of the EU, maintaining it with the UK as a third country presents regulatory and operational challenges.

It is imperative that we maintain in full the reciprocity of civic rights and social welfare rights and entitlements that currently exist for Irish and UK citizens moving within Ireland and between Ireland and Britain under the CTA. In that regard, we seek clarity on what exactly has been done in terms of bilaterals between the Tánaiste and the UK. How far along are those preparations? What type of provisions has he put in place to date to maintain the common travel area?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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They are very fair questions. It is important to say that, in practice, the CTA has been implemented administratively and more formally through sectoral agreements and legislation, where necessary and relevant, for example, the Citizens of United Kingdom and Colonies (Irish Citizenship Rights) Order 1949, the Aliens (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 1999, the Aliens (Exemption) Order 1999 and, in the UK, the Ireland Act 1949 and the Immigration Act 1971. That is the kind of legislation we have been relying on, most of which predates membership of the EU for Ireland and Britain.

What we are doing now at official level, internally within the Irish Government but also on a bilateral basis between Government officials here and their counterparts in the UK, is to work on the practical arrangements that need to be done here in Ireland and in the UK to maintain the kind of relationship we enjoy today as Irish citizens in the UK and UK citizens in Ireland. That work is well under way.

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I note from a parliamentary question tabled by my colleague, Deputy O’Dea, that the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, met the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Right Honourable Esther McVey, on Monday, 23 April 2018. The Minister stated that she has a broad agreement to preserve the status quoin the field of social security for both Irish and UK citizens moving within the common travel area. I emphasise "broad agreement". We are glad to see such bilateral meetings taking place, given that the UK will exit from the EU in approximately nine months from now. It is crucial that detailed and extensive work is done to ensure that the commitments given to maintain the common travel area are translated into reality.

It might surprise the Tánaiste to know that a Senator in his own party, Senator Neale Richmond, has said that these bilateral discussions with London would undo any EU solidarity we have enjoyed and maintained. I welcome the Tánaiste's comments on that statement, which was quite worrying because it is my view and that of the Fianna Fáil Party that bilateral discussions are essential. Maintaining a good relationship with the UK following Brexit is essential also. Citizens on this island and those in our nearest neighbour, the UK, want those reassurance also. It is important that when Senator Richmond is sent out to bat for the Tánaiste, he is on the same message that Team Ireland, in terms of all of us in this House, is on.

In the event of a no-deal or a cliff-edge scenario, will the Tánaiste outline what he considers to be the implications for the common travel area?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I believe Senator Richmond has been doing an extraordinarily good job in batting for Ireland-----

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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For the Tánaiste, is it?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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-----on both British and Irish media. He has been making the case in a succinct and informed way but it is important to make a distinction in respect of the common travel area arrangements because it is accepted by the EU task force and both negotiating teams that this is a bilateral matter and that nothing in any withdrawal agreement or treaty will undermine the capacity for Britain and Ireland to maintain the common travel area on a bilateral basis. This is different from many of the other issues that have to be negotiated formally through the task force with the British Government. It is accepted by everybody that bilateral discussion, agreement and negotiation will be necessary to make sure we protect the benefits of the common travel area for British and Irish citizens and that is happening.

As for the bilateral relationship with the British Government, I will be in London again next week, where I will meet a series of British Ministers to discuss Brexit. We talk to our counterparts all the time about Brexit but that is different from formally negotiating with them, which we cannot do because Michel Barnier and his task force have the responsibility to negotiate on behalf of the EU as a whole, including Ireland.