Results 10,901-10,920 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Issues (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: Is the Deputy asking whether I have raised the ownership of Rosslare Europort?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Issues (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I will have to come back to the Deputy on the ownership issue because I do not have an answer to that. If live animals move between these two islands today, 10% of them need to be checked because we manage animal disease on an all-island basis. Therefore, even moving within the Single Market as it is today, some checks are required, and that is unlikely to change in the future in terms...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Policy (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: Constitutional and political arrangements in Spain are matters that are best determined by its citizens and their public representatives. Such arrangements must be determined within the framework of the constitution and the rule of law which have underpinned democracy in Spain over the past 40 years. I have raised it with my Spanish counterpart - in fact, it was with the previous...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Policy (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: The Government continues to follow with interest developments in Spain. However, constitutional and political arrangements in Spain are matters that are best determined by its citizens and their public representatives. As stated, such arrangements must be determined within the framework of the Spanish constitution and the rule of law, which have underpinned democracy in Spain for the past...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Trade Agreements (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: The EU-Morocco agreement on reciprocal liberalisation of trade entered into force in 2012. This agreement was the subject of a legal challenge at EU level and in December 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the EU-Morocco Association Agreement and the liberalisation agreement between the EU and Morocco did not apply to Western Sahara. In May 2017, the Council...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Trade Agreements (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I answered some of those questions in my reply when I said that the proposed amended agreement is understood to be purely provisional, pending the resolution of the dispute through the UN in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council. It is also important to say that in February 2018, the European Commission and European External Action Service, EEAS, conducted a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Trade Agreements (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I understand the Deputy's concerns but the information I have is that there was a consultation process and that there were people in Western Sahara, who were part of that consultation process, who wanted to see the extension of the trading arrangements to Western Sahara. It is true to say that Polisario Front did not involve itself in that consultation for the reasons the Deputy outlined....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I do not disagree with anything the Deputy said. Much of the focus of the briefing we received at the meeting in Brussels with Martin Griffiths was on the port of Hudaydah in terms of, first, ensuring there was not a massacre there and, second, ensuring that the port could facilitate delivery of aid, medicines and so on. I assure the Deputy the issues in regard to Yemen have been the source...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: As discussed in this House previously, Ireland does not have the capacity to implement trade embargos on its own.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: We know what the problem is; the issues is how we stop it. Any country that signed up to the arms trade treaty of 2014 has a legal obligation to ensure that if it is selling arms they do not end up in the hands of non-state actors, of which there are many in Yemen. That is an enforcement issue. Ultimately, we need to focus on the core issue, which is how we stop the conflict, the bombing...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: On Yemen, we would be very foolish not to follow the advice of Martin Griffiths, the UN Special Envoy. He is the person from whom I take our lead in terms of what we do and say. We have had a number of engagements with him at an EU level. The focus was very much on Stockholm for the end of last year to try to bring the parties together, to try to get a basis for a ceasefire and to try to...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Negotiations (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: We should not try to pre-empt decisions of the British Parliament. We will know later on today and will hopefully have a clearer picture of what the majority in the British Parliament is seeking. We have an idea of what the majority does not want but we do not yet know what a majority is willing to support. Seven or eight amendments will be taken in Westminster this evening. Let us wait...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 43, 49, 52 and 75 together, if that is agreed.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I have quite a long answer here so-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Foreign Conflicts (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: After nearly four years of conflict in this extremely poor country, the lives of millions of people in Yemen are in danger and have been for many months now. In addition to the hazards of war, many have difficulties in accessing food and healthcare due to insecurity and poor humanitarian access. Millions of others are unable to pay for food and medical care even when it is...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Travel Area (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: This has essentially already been agreed at official level.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Travel Area (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: I hear the question. Some formal signings are required particularly relating to social security. That is due to happen in the coming days. Earlier, I outlined why that was not signed earlier.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Travel Area (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: Yes. We are now coming to a point where not signing them means that we simply do not have time to be able to complete the follow-up legislation in order to be ready for 29 March, should that be necessary to protect our citizens' pensions, social welfare payments and so on. We hope to be able to do that in the coming days. I do not have an exact date for the memorandum of understanding,...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Travel Area (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: That is a very reasonable set of questions. There was a choice to be made here as to whether we would put in place a formal legal treaty on the common travel area on a bilateral basis between Britain and Ireland or whether we would do it through this memorandum of understanding, which would have some legislative element to it. I understand we chose the memorandum of understanding mechanism...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Common Travel Area (29 Jan 2019)

Simon Coveney: It kind of did. It was at least a recognition of each other's citizenship in our countries. When we joined the European Union, the Single Market and the customs union, much of that formality was never needed because it was overtaken by EU membership. The absence of the UK's EU membership obviously exposes some of that, which is why the memorandum of understanding is needed. There has been...