Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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770. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if an island of Ireland GI approved at EU level in operation on the last day of the transition period must be recognised in UK law post withdrawal following the European Commission’s draft withdrawal agreement with the UK published on 28 February 2018 regarding Article 50 and geographical indicators. [12978/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In recent weeks the EU Commission has published drafts of the EU/UK Withdrawal Agreement and the negotiating guidelines on the framework for the future relationship for consideration and agreement by member states, before forwarding to the UK as part of the negotiation process.

Ireland has three all-island Geographical Indications (GIs) - Irish Whiskey, Irish Cream and Irish Poitín – which are protected under EU Regulation 110/2008 on the definition, description, presentation, labelling and protection of geographical indications of spirit drinks.

Article 50 of the draft withdrawal agreement proposes that geographical indications protected under EU Regulation 110/2008 will, from the end of the transition period, be entitled to use a right in the UK, granted under UK law, which provides for at least the same level of protection as that provided under the relevant EU law.

The negotiations with the UK on the Withdrawal Agreement will be conducted on this basis.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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771. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on references to agriculture and fisheries under Article 125 in the main text and Article 5 of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland published as a Protocol as part of the European Commission’s draft withdrawal agreement with the UK published on 28 February 2018; and his further views on reference to reciprocal fishing rights published in the EU Council's draft guidelines of 7 March 2018 following the European Commission’s draft withdrawal agreement with the UK published on 28 February 2018. [12979/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In recent weeks the EU Commission has published drafts of the EU/UK withdrawal agreement and the negotiating guidelines on the framework for the future relationship for consideration and agreement by member states, before forwarding to the UK as part of the negotiation process.

From an Irish perspective the two documents, while still works in progress, reflect the engagement this Government has had with both the task force and other member states since the referendum vote some 20 months ago.  I particularly welcome the determination expressed in the withdrawal agreement to have as close a partnership as possible with the UK in the future. 

On fisheries, our priorities have been to avoid any decoupling of fisheries issues from the rest of the negotiation and to ensure that the current mechanisms for access and quota determination are preserved.  These priorities are reflected in the documentation referred to above, as a result of co-operation between my Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Commission Task Force.

On the agriculture-specific aspects of Article 5 of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, these provisions are in accordance with our desire to ensure that the commitments made by the United Kingdom in the EU-UK joint report of December 2017 in relation to the avoidance of a hard border are reflected in the withdrawal agreement. More specifically, the protocol provides the necessary legal provisions to implement the backstop of maintaining full alignment in Northern Ireland with those rules of the single market and customs union necessary to protect North-South cooperation and to avoid a hard border, in the event that a solution in this regard is not arrived at through the wider EU-UK future relationship agreement or through specific solutions put forward by the UK government.