Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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89. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the implications of the decision to defer the need for agreement on the Brexit backstop to the EU Council meeting in October 2018 on preparations to ensure the protection of cross-Border workers' rights post-Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22628/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU’s objective remains that the full legal text of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, as well as a detailed political declaration on the framework for the future relationship, be agreed by the October meeting of the European Council. With a view to achieving this goal, negotiations have been continuing between the EU and the UK to close the remaining gaps on the draft Withdrawal Agreement, including through detailed discussions on the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. The draft Protocol is an integral part of the Withdrawal Agreement and addresses issues unique to the island of Ireland. Agreement has already been reached between EU and UK negotiators regarding the Common Travel Area in Article 2, which will allow free movement of Irish and UK citizens between Ireland and the UK to continue.

Agreement has also been reached at negotiator level on Part II of the draft Withdrawal Agreement. This relates to Citizens’ Rights and includes a chapter (Chapter 2) on protecting the rights of EU workers and self-employed persons, including frontier workers, currently in the UK. This will address the situation of non-Irish citizens.

Last week, the EU and UK negotiating teams published a Joint Statement, which set out the progress made since the March European Council. Disappointingly, the progress reported on the Protocol falls very far short of the EU’s, and the Government’s, expectations.

This is a message the Taoiseach conveyed very clearly to President Juncker when they met last week and the Members of this House also had the opportunity to raise their concerns with President Juncker later that same day.

I welcome that, in response, President Juncker reiterated the EU’s support for Ireland, and that the Protocol, including the backstop, is an integral and indispensable part of the Withdrawal Agreement. This is fully consistent with the strong message of solidarity I received from my EU counterparts, as well as Michel Barnier, when I met with them in Luxembourg earlier this week.

On Friday, the Taoiseach will meet with his EU27 counterparts to take stock of developments in the negotiations and discuss the way forward. Ireland will seek to ensure that the EU sends a clear message to the UK that it must respect the commitments it has made and that, in the absence of agreement on a backstop, it will not be possible to finalise the Withdrawal Agreement as a whole, including the transition arrangements.

The overriding priority now is to proceed in the manner that is most likely to achieve agreement on all withdrawal issues, including the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. While this will ultimately be a matter for the European Council (Article 50) EU leaders on Friday, the widespread view, which I share, is that stalling the negotiating process would not serve this aim and that talks should intensify with a view to making the necessary progress.