Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate on a wide-ranging issue. My colleague, Senator Ruane, spoke about emigration from the Famine years. However, we know Irish emigration extends much further back in the past. We had St. Brendan, for example, the Wild Geese and the Ulster Scots who went to America. Irish people can be found all over the world, including Australia, Canada and the United States, whose Irish immigrants are represented very well by Senator Lawless. However, people with Irish roots can also be found in less well-known countries such as Argentina.

I would like to use my time to develop the comments made by Senators Ó Clochartaigh and Higgins and focus on the members of the diaspora living closest to home, namely, Irish people in the United Kingdom who find themselves in uncharted territory and a difficult position as a result of the vote on Brexit last year. I appeal to the Minister of State, who was in Westminster earlier this week, and the Minister for Education and Skills, who will be in Britain for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations, to use every visit to the UK and every opportunity available to them to press the case of Irish people in Britain and emphasise our ideas for solutions to the problems presented by Brexit. They must also emphasise to their UK counterparts the need to come together.

Two issues emerged from an excellent committee meeting we had this morning with colleagues from the House of Commons. First and foremost, it is time to identify solutions to the problems arising from Brexit. We all know what the problems are but it is time to identify solutions. We must use all the institutions and forums available to us, whether here, in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and including the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and British-Irish Council, to find solutions to be presented, jointly with the United Kingdom, to the 27 EU member states for inclusion in the Brexit negotiations. Some of these solutions are obvious.

I welcome Irish people who decide to return to Ireland, especially those working in the city of London, many of whom are friends of mine. While I look forward to them coming home, many are not in a position to do so as they have settled in the UK where they have found good jobs, bought homes and started families. We must ask what special status can be secured for EU citizens living in the UK and what reciprocal status can be provided for the several million British citizens living in the European Union, including 300,000 in the Republic of Ireland and large numbers in Spain. We must maintain the common travel area between Ireland and the UK. There is a desire and momentum towards viewing the island of Ireland as a solution and ensuring it does not have a hard internal Border. There is an openness to this issue at a European level. I and Senator Craughwell spoke to Mr. Guy Verhofstadt and Mr. Michel Barnier in the past two weeks and both men regard this proposition as acceptable.

While it is important that we hammer home our long-term goals, we must identify and secure a transitional agreement. Brexit negotiations may last for two years but the outcomes will take much longer to implement. For this reason, I fear many of the diaspora living closest to home may fall into the gaps. An agreement must be reached as early as possible on transitional special recognition of Irish workers in the United Kingdom. The arrangement should apply to all EU workers in the UK and reciprocal arrangements should apply to British workers in the EU. I am aware, for example, that there are large numbers of Cypriots and Maltese citizens living in the UK. Let us make clear to our negotiating partners in the EU and our counterparts in the UK, starting with the meetings which will be held this week and next, that we have an ideal solution to a very obvious problem that must be resolved in the short term by means of a transitional agreement.