Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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47. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has spoken to his UK counterpart since the deferred voted in the UK Parliament on the draft withdrawal treaty. [51796/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Brexit is a priority issue for this Government, and the Taoiseach, my cabinet colleagues and I have taken every opportunity to engage with EU partners and the UK to advance Ireland’s priorities. On 10 December, I met with Jeremy Hunt, in Brussels, in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council, prior to Prime Minister May’s decision to postpone the meaningful vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons and I have been in contact with David Lidington since. The Government, together with the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, have made it very clear that the Agreement cannot be renegotiated. This includes the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is an integral part of the Withdrawal Agreement and which includes the backstop provisions. The Withdrawal Agreement, which was endorsed by the EU and agreed with the UK Government, is the best possible deal to protect UK and EU interests and to ensure an orderly withdrawal.

As President Tusk has stated, the European Council is ready to discuss how to facilitate UK ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement. It may be possible to provide the UK with reassurances or statements of clarification, but the EU, and the Government, have made it clear that these can in no way contradict or change the meaning of the legal text agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement.