Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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705. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has had discussions with members of the British Government since his comments were reported on 5 January 2017 referring to the need for the British Prime Minister and her Government to outline their Brexit strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1398/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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This Government has already had a number of contacts with UK counterparts in the first weeks of the year.

I have been in close contact over the past week with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, in relation to the political developments in Northern Ireland, including a face to face meeting in Belfast on 12 January. In that meeting, we discussed the implications of the current crisis in Stormont for the protection of Northern Ireland’s interests in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

Also, on Monday 9 January, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, was in Dublin and met with the Minister for Finance. The UK exit from the EU was a key issue on the agenda for that meeting. Furthermore, when Prime Minister May spoke by phone to the Taoiseach on 10 January, they also discussed Brexit. The Prime Minister is expected to visit Dublin in the coming weeks and UK exit will again be a central focus of the discussions with the Taoiseach.

Prime Minister May has indicated that she intends to provide some more detail on the UK’s negotiating approach in the coming weeks, ahead of her stated intention to formally issue article 50 notification of the UK’s intention to leave the EU. In the lead up to the launch of formal negotiations on the UK’s exit, I expect to continue my regular contacts with both the UK Government and with the 26 member states of the EU and to continue to sensitise all my interlocutors to Ireland’s key concerns regarding Brexit.