Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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65. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if analysis has been conducted regarding the designation of Northern Ireland as a special economic zone, including maintaining ongoing connectivity with the European Union. [50016/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s focus in relation to Northern Ireland in the context of the EU-UK exit negotiations is the substantive outcome on each of the key issues, rather than on the label ascribed to the overall package. Our priority has always been to ensure that the gains of the peace process and the achievements of the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts, including avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, are not harmed by the UK’s exit from the European Union. This objective is shared by our EU partners, the UK Government and the parties in Northern Ireland.

We welcome the joint report of the negotiators of the EU and the UK and, in that regard, we have secured an important commitment from the UK and EU. Crucially, the UK has reiterated that there will be no physical border infrastructure or related checks on the island of Ireland and sets out in detail how this can be achieved. We have a stated commitment from the UK to maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South co-operation, the all-island economy and the protection of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Government has always said that we would see the UK as a whole staying in the single market and the Customs Union as the best possible outcome for Northern Ireland and for East-West trade. The joint report spells out the UK’s intention to avoid any hard border through a comprehensive future EU-UK relationship.

I am satisfied, therefore that in all eventualities, a hard border will be avoided and North South cooperation protected. This is something that every political party on our island supports. There is a great deal of work still to be done on the Irish-specific issues in order to ensure that all of the commitments set out in the joint report are implemented. I am therefore pleased that work on Irish issues will continue to be taken forward in a distinct strand of the EU-UK negotiations in phase two. This will ensure that they will not be overlooked in the next phase.

It is for these reasons that I hope that the European Council meeting this week in Brussels will agree that sufficient progress has been made in phase one of the negotiations, and that discussions can now commence on a future EU-UK relationship and any transitional arrangements.