Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be back once again in the Seanad to participate in this timely discussion on the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. The ongoing work of this Chamber on Brexit issues, particularly the efforts of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU, underlines the continued importance of this issue for communities across the country.

Northern Ireland did not seek Brexit and did not vote for Brexit. It is a policy whose problems were all too foreseeable. Week by week and month by month, they become increasingly clear to us all. The particular form of Brexit chosen by the British Government created new trade barriers. Leaving the Single Market and the customs union and prioritising the pursuit of regulatory divergence have inevitably created burdens for businesses and traders. That choice brings new checks and controls on goods. It has led to significant supply chain challenges, resulting in needless friction, delays and, in some cases, shortages.

Thankfully, the protocol, agreed by the EU and the UK, is there to mitigate those negative effects as much as possible. It clearly and explicitly protects the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the peace process. It prevents a hard border on this island. It protects and supports an all-island economy that continues to flourish, building on years of sustained growth, and maintains the necessary conditions for continued North-South co-operation. It also protects the European Single Market and Ireland's place in it, equal to the other 26 member states. We see regular polling data, including recently from Queen's University Belfast and the University of Liverpool, telling us that most people in the North see the protocol as, on balance, a good thing for Northern Ireland. They consider it an appropriate means of seeking to mitigate the harsh realities of Brexit. They see that it provides a unique set of economic opportunities that can and should be seized on.

It is clear from my regular engagements that the Northern Ireland business community shares that positive focus. Business leaders in the North, from the Confederation of British Industry to Manufacturing Northern Ireland to the chambers of commerce to others, are clear that the protocol creates opportunities for jobs and growth. Invest Northern Ireland is experiencing historically high levels of foreign direct investment interest. The Dairy Council for Northern Ireland has been emphatic: without the protocol, the effects on the dairy sector, North and South, would have been devastating. During the course of this year, we have seen a series of jobs and investment announcements clearly predicated on Northern Ireland's free, open and seamless access to the massive European Single Market for goods and to the UK internal market.

We all know that legal uncertainty and political instability can be hammer blows for economic growth and investment. That is why it is particularly disappointing that the British Government might consider further actions that would stoke needless uncertainty. Proposals to effectively dismantle the protocol, to renegotiate its basis or to remove Northern Ireland from the European Single Market by putting the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice at issue needlessly undermine efforts to create jobs and investment opportunities in Northern Ireland.

We have always recognised that the disruptions of Brexit would be very difficult to manage and contain. The Irish Government has devoted great efforts and resources to doing so, North and South. We continue to engage with business and community leaders across Northern Ireland on the protocol and responding to the challenges of Brexit. We do so in good faith, seeking working and sustainable solutions. We do so in close partnership with the European Union, which has steadfastly supported the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process with substantial funding over many years and a genuine commitment to have a sustained peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Vice-President Šefovi, as the Commission's lead on EU-UK relations, has been a committed ally of the island of Ireland, North and South. I wish to acknowledge his engagement with the Oireachtas this week in coming before the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU. I met with Vice-President Šefovi yesterday. It is very clear that he remains fully committed to finding creative, credible and durable solutions to the genuine concerns raised with him by people and businesses in Northern Ireland. The EU's proposals can ensure that Northern Ireland's medicines supplies are fully secured. They can ease further the flow of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland, cutting hugely the sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, and customs formalities faced by businesses. They can also provide new opportunities for Northern Irish voices to be heard and listened to on how the protocol is to be implemented in the future. The European Union's bona fides as a good faith actor are clear and are motivated by the desire to sustain peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland. To help to secure this goal, the British Government too must step up and engage credibly with the EU proposals, seeking genuine agreement and resolution in the ongoing talks.

I welcome that the EU and UK teams continue to talk this week, today and tomorrow, and that Vice President Šefovi and Lord Frost will meet again on Friday. Our focus remains on those ongoing EU-UK talks. We should give them every chance to succeed. We need to see the focus of engagement within those talks not on ideological ends but on the practical needs of people and businesses in Northern Ireland. We need to develop trust and a positive working relationship. It is difficult to sustain such a relationship when one party holds out persistent threats to destabilise its own recently negotiated agreements. As the Taoiseach said recently, it would be irresponsible, unwise and reckless for the UK to invoke Article 16. Not only would this further mire the EU-UK relationship; it would carry serious negative implications for the bilateral relationship between our two Governments. The protocol creates genuine and unique potential for Northern Ireland, offering unrivalled potential through its free and open dual market access. In recent days Northern Ireland's business community has made clear that invoking Article 16 would produce unnecessary uncertainty and instability for traders, and they do not want that.

The people of Northern Ireland are clear: they want a society and an economy that provides good jobs, stability and opportunity. They want a political establishment working on their needs and focused on their interests. These are not unreasonable expectations and they are not undeliverable.I believe that the remaining issues can be resolved in the context of the implementation of the protocol. However, to do so we need to get a much more positive, much more stable and much more trusting EU-UK relationship. We have some way to go to get there but I can assure this House that the Government will not stop doing all it can to help to develop, support and sustain such a relationship in the interests of all of the people on this island. I look forward to listening to Members' own thoughts and questions. If there are specific queries or questions, I will try to address them directly when I come back in again.