Results 4,721-4,740 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: First of all, the problem in Northern Ireland is not as feared. Certainly, there is a fear that certain drugs may not be able to get into Northern Ireland because they are certified in Great Britain and that certification would not be recognised by the EU, and therefore that product coming into the EU Single Market for goods would be problematic because it is not certified by the EU....

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I met the pharmaceutical industry on multiple occasions during the endless Brexit negotiations, and many companies have spent much money restructuring their footprints in Ireland and the UK. If you take my constituency, for example, which probably has the second largest cluster of pharmaceuticals in the EU, all the big brands are there and nearly all of those companies have a big footprint...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: At the start of the year breakfast cereals were coming in that were produced in Spain and that then went to a redistribution centre I think in Liverpool in the UK. That redistribution centre covered the UK and Ireland. They were not even re-boxed; they were just redistributed from the UK. They then became stateless in terms of origin because they came from the UK into Ireland.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: Correct. They could not be treated as UK product because they originated in EU. Those redistribution centres have had to change their systems quite fundamentally. Many retailers in Ireland now access directly through hubs in France, the Netherlands, Germany and so on. However, it is not as easy to do that for medicines. It is not like a box of corn flakes.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: Yes, the labelling has to be English.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: So it should be, because we are much better off with the protocol than without it. There are many more upsides than downsides to the protocol. All of the political focus has been on the negative, in terms of the number of checks required, the limitations and the chilled meat issue, which became sort of an identity issue of British sausages coming into Northern Ireland. More and more people...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: We needed democratic legitimacy for it. One of the asks of the British side was that the protocol should and could never be imposed on Northern Ireland against the will of the majority there. That is something I absolutely agree with. As much as I think the protocol can work, if the majority of people in Northern Ireland do not want it, we have to accept that. The are extraordinary...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: No, the way in which that vote takes place is it is effectively a simple majority of MLAs every four years. If there is a large majority of more than two thirds, then the next vote can be put off for eight years. My hope would be, and this may be naive, is that if we can get compromise and flexibility in a way that allows business and many in the unionist community to accept the protocol,...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I have not received a briefing from today's discussion. Generally what happens is the two teams meet on Wednesday and Thursday, and it is every second week in Brussels and London. Then the two principals meet on Friday to assess progress, or not, as the case may be. Two weeks ago, there was a noticeable change in tone coming from the British side, which certainly suggested to the EU that...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: This is a robust negotiation. Lord Frost is a good and tough negotiator and good luck to him. The EU also has concerns that need to be protected. As Vice-President Šefovi said at this committee, its priorities are the integrity of the Single Market, not compromising it, protecting an all-island economy, protecting a peace process and ensuring there is no need for any physical...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: We could not get agreement.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: On the trust question, now is not the time for me to talk about who is at fault throughout these negotiations over the past nine months. There will be plenty of opportunity to do that if we can get an agreement. I am anxious to focus on the limited but nevertheless evident progress over the past ten days or so and to try to encourage that progress even further. It is not helpful for me to...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Update on Withdrawal Agreement, Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Minister for Foreign Affairs (24 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I have not had long conversations with my counterpart in Northern Ireland on this. This is a political decision for the Executive. I will not overreach as I sometimes get criticised for doing that by politicians in Northern Ireland. This is a matter for the Executive. It is its issue. We have signalled for some time that we want to do this, we think it is a good public health measure and...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Maritime Jurisdiction (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2021 was enacted by the Oireachtas on 22 July this year. It updates the State’s law on maritime jurisdiction to reflect developments in international and domestic law and consolidates the previous legislation in one, stand-alone enactment. Sections 17, 18 and 19 of the Act deal with the continental shelf and replace and update sections 2 and 3 of...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Foreign Birth Registration (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The processing of Foreign Birth Registration applications resumed on 15th November and will be gradually scaling up in line with the recruitment of additional resources. My Department is fully committed to allocating additional resources over the coming period to assist with the processing of the high volume of new applications anticipated and the 32,000 Foreign Birth Registration...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 309, 310 and 319 together. With regard to the specific applications about which the Deputies have enquired, the Passport Service has issued passports to the applicants.

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 311 and 314 together. With regard to the specific applications about which the Deputies have enquired, the Passport Service has provided an update on the status of the passport applications to the applicants.

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The processing of Foreign Birth Registration applications resumed on 15th November and will be gradually scaling up in line with the recruitment of additional resources. My Department is fully committed to allocating additional resources over the coming period to assist with the processing of the high volume of new applications anticipated and the 32,000 Foreign Birth Registration...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: With regard to the specific passport application to which the Deputy refers, the Passport Service has returned the requested document.

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Brexit Issues (23 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: It is not possible for me to comment on individual cases without further information as to the nature of the issues experienced by the individuals referred to by the Deputy. Officials in my Department have been in contact with the Deputy’s office to request more information and will review the issue further once received. I would like to set out the general position on Passenger...